The Strength Of Those Left Behind
by Saiyu.Aradatai
Summary: What if Naruto was found dying by Tsunade at the age of 4 and a half just outside Kohona? What if she and Shizune were to take him in? Strong Naruto and Hinata, NaruHina.
1. Chapter 1

**Hayo here :) My first story on ff.n feel free to review with any suggetion you might have about anything. Basic plotline at the min, strong naru and hinata, main pairing naruhina, side pairing shikatem, sakulee, ankoxiruka, kurenaixasuma... yeah and more when I get round to thinking about it. **

**I DON'T OWN NARUTO! All praises to Kishimoto-sama who does!**

**Any way just enjoy reading it :P XD**

He didn't know why they hated him it was just something he had to learn to live with he had reasoned many years ago than to fight back that had caused him to get thrown in jail the one time he had tried that. The stares, insults, thrown food and other objects, regular break ins to his already bare apartment and refusing to sell him anything of a decent quality. He had found it was easier to ignore the stares and keep walking. In any other city in any of the great ninja or even civilian powers a young boy of no more than 4 and a half walking around in thread bare clothes and worn out shoes would have earned pity, sympathy and a bit of food here or there or clothes maybe but not apparently in the most powerful ninja village in the world. No, the people in Kohonagakure were far too wrapped up in their own hatred to help. No shinobi would reprimand any of the people who said anything only when the boy was being severely beaten would they step in and that was only because they knew the Hokage would reprimand them for not. Even then the definition of severe differed from shinobi to shinobi, the poor boy had been admitted to hospital from broken arms, ribs, legs, a shattered pelvic bone, blood loss, major lacerations, torn muscles and numerous other injuries. The child would heal more quickly than the average person though so he would get kicked out of the hospital as soon as the doctors could manage.

This of course did not go unnoticed to the Hokage of the village but what could he do? The council had him in a vice he could not show Naruto any favouritism without being ousted from the position. Sarutobi did what he could investing his own funds so that he bought Naruto's whole apartment block and any rent Naruto paid went into a fund for when he turned 16 or gained Jounin level whichever came first and the Namikaze estate and scrolls was to become his on the same terms. This was the council's compromise for not killing the boy. Sarutobi had argued for all he was worth to let it be known who Naruto's father was but if the rock had ever found out they would have a full scale war on their hands if Naruto ever went there. Sarutobi always made sure he had clothes (however bad they were), water and electricity. This was all the poor Hokage could do and it made him very sad to what his village had shrunk to. He had once heard Naruto say that he wished to be Hokage one day and he hoped with all his heart that the villagers could look beyond the fox they all saw and found one of the greatest ninja Kohona ever had.

Today was the day of the Kyubi festival and said small boy was getting ready to go out. He wore a mask every year and would have a great time until someone realized who he was. Even then they would put him in hospital with such serious injuries that the doctors would have to keep him in overnight and he would at least be given a proper meal. So in his mind it was a win - win situation. He shut the door behind him which the locked the seal Jiriya had placed there. Only shinobi or Naruto could have opened the door. The Hokage could never find the shinobi that would let the blood lusting civilians in. He walked through the streets with a fox masks on, many who looked his way thought it was weird thinking that this was a festival celebrating the Kyubi's death but thought nothing more of it. The small boy danced with clan heirs and nobody seemed to mind all they saw was a cute little kid with blonde hair dancing with their son/daughter. Some even let him share some of the food they had.

That of course changed when he took of his mask of to eat the food he was given. The shock on the look of parents faces when they yanked their little darlings away from the evil child snatching back the food they had moments ago given him in good spirit. That look the young boy had learned years ago meant trouble so he ran.

"DEMON SCUMB!"

"KYUBI REBORN!"

"YOU DESERVE TO DIE!"

"DIE SCUMB!"

The mob shouted as they chased him down an alley brandishing fire and pitch like all mobs seem to. No one tried to stop them they had not caused severe harm yet so there was no need.

"Help!" Naruto shouted sounding young and terrified like he was. No one came to help him no one would help the demon child.

The mob kicked him and shouted, screaming obscenities at him and the sky. Cursing the beast that killed their hero yet killing his memory themselves. Some threw kunai that had been handed to them by a passing ninja, who happened to not notice what was going on. Soon the beating the child was getting was beyond that anyone could control except the Hokage but no one had mention to him what was going on. The mob continued to beat the child to the point of death in memory in memory of a death.

Not a single person noticed a small girl huddled in the corner of the alley crying. She had run after the boy when he had ran away from her father's look, he was good fun to be around so she ignored her father's calls for her to come back and to stop dishonouring the clan and her mother's calls of worry. She watched as her small play mate was kicked and punched and screamed. She cried at her inability to help her orange clad friend, her inability to help anyone or to be at least bit strong. She cried for his well-being the first unbeknownst to her, to ever do so.

The crown began to disperse they knew if they killed the child they could no longer cause it pain so they let it go. They figured as long it survived they could hurt it more later, make it suffer more for the 4th's death. They petered off down small streets away from the boy who began to crawl away.

He crawled away from people from the small girl towards the gate of Kohona. The pain his body was experiencing was excruciating but all he could think of was escape away from the evil of the place called the Leaf. The Leaf that he could only see as a tormentor, as something that hurt him. The evil had blotted out the kindness some had tried to give him, shielded his young face from the light of the sun and as everyone knows everyone needs sun light. He crawled as fast as he could and soon he reached the gates. He didn't understand that there was no protection outside the Leaf for him but he also didn't see the people coming down the road.

The small got up on her small legs and went after him towards the gate she didn't know why. It just made sense to her to see to if the other human being was ok. She couldn't help him she didn't know enough about anything. That is what her father always told so that is what she believed. She watched the small boy crawl away from home and she felt so sorry for someone whose home was a place.

"Shizune, did you remember to pack everything?"

"Course, Tsunade-san,"

"Forget all bills?"

"Course, Tsunade-san,"

"You're good,"

"Course, Tsunade-san,"

"Do you say anything else Shizune?"

"Course, Tsunade-san,"

"Mhmph"

"Shizune?"

"Yes?"

"**What** is that?" The legendary sucker and her assistant were walking away from the last town they had been in and running away from all the bills that were chasing from the town before. They were walking past Kohona's gates not going in it, held too many memories for Tsunade. The lane they were walking down was sandy and wasn't meant for civilians. A small boy was crawling down the side of the road. Tsunade and Shizune looked at the crawling figure in disgust and surprise. The boy couldn't even be 5 they reasoned and he was beaten to the edge of survival and has crawling away from **Kohona**.

'_Oh,' Tsunade thought 'Oh, Sarutobi how could you have let this happen?' _As she looked at Shizune who was obviously distressed.

"Shizune, you know I said I would never perform medical jutsu again?"

"Yes, my lady,"

"That is another promise I am breaking today," She said as she ran over to the child carrying her bag of medical supplies that she was supposed to have gotten rid of. Her shocked assistant stood still in shock, the boy was covered in blood, COVERED in it. Head to foot the boy was bleeding and Tsunade without even blinking was there her hands glowing green healing him.

"SHIZUNE!" Tsunade's words broke her out of her thought as she too ran over to help. The kids wounds were sever and needed them both to work on him. Soon they were finished and looking at him. With the blood cleaned from his face he looked just like a certain someone they used to know.

"He's like Minato-san reborn," Shizune whispered not wanting to wake the boy who was taking some well-earned rest. Tsunade blinked tears forming on the edge of her eyes.

"Yes, yes he does doesn't he? Shizune, there is no way we can leave him here! Some passing robber is going to come and cause him the same damage that those idiots in Kohona did. Leaving him here would be an insult to Minato-kun's memory."

"What are you suggesting?"

"Nothing, I'm saying he's coming with us." Shizune nodded it was the best thing to do in this situation. Shizune picked him up and put him over her shoulder carefully making sure not to wake him as they headed down the dusty sand covered track to who knows where they certainly didn't.

At the gates of Kohona a young heiress stood watching them leave. She couldn't leave her father would rather have her assassinated than have her blood line fall into the hands of others. She turned to leave to go home to the wealth power and beating she knew she would receive. The road was short to her compound and she assured herself as soon as she was able she would get out of her.

**Well there you go 1st chapter done please review and hoped you enjoyed it... I'm thinking Anko to train Hinata but any other ideas...? xx Saiyu **


	2. Chapter 2

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Anime/Manga » Naruto » **The Strength Of Those Left Behind**

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Author:

Rated: T - English - Adventure/Romance - Reviews: 129 - Published: 12-26-10 - Updated: 06-13-11

id:6591421

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**Hayo, 2nd chapter. Woop! XD Hope you enjoy... **

**I DON'T OWN NARUTO! Wish I did though :P**

**To JA : If Hinata ran away with Tsunade along with Naruto Hiashi would have a assassain to protect the blood line because she is no longer be under his control. Yeah?**

**To banakai777 : He won't know unless she tells him and she is going to let him worry for a while for all the pain Naruto had to live with... I tried to think of the person most opposite to Hinata I could think of so she could become stronger it was between Anko and Kurenai because of the genjutsu.**

**To Anata Kiyoshi : I want her to be able to stand up to her father in the future the way he treats the branch clan is horrible so I want her to be confident to challenge him on that and his treatment of her.**

**To Aprilborn and Mr Amazingly Awesome Cool : Thanks XD**

Naruto woke to the smiling face of the slug sannin came into view. He jumped automatically away from the person standing over him. He had no clue who she was so he was scared of her. He had no trust in her until he did know about her and knew that she wouldn't hurt him but even then he could never be sure.

"Shh…." Tsunade said looking at him worriedly, "what's wrong?"

Naruto thought for a second trying to pin point what exactly was wrong. "You were going to hurt me," he said finally.

"Why do you think that?" Tsunade was hurt by that statement and shocked that the child jumped to the conclusion so suddenly.

"You had that look on your face that people wear when they are going to hurt me."

Tsunade was dumb struck, that look, she had smiled at him… The only place he had seen a smile before was when someone was getting pleasure out of hurting him. A child who lived like that was not a child but a veteran of pain and suffering. No child should ever have to suffer that much.

"I'm not going to hurt you. My name is Tsunade; I am one of the legendary sannin." She hoped that he might have heard of the sannin and calm down a little.

"You PERV!" Naruto shouted crawling further away from. If in anyone would be bothered to measure it he was now the furthest away from her he could be and still be in the room.

She looked at him with those eyes of she had that demanded an answer to the unspoken question that was floating around just over her head.

"The legendary sannin are a group of perverts look at that bloke in your squad he dances around and peeks into bath houses!"

So he has met Jiriya, Tsunade thought smiling at his description of him. "You know of Jiriya then," she said "We are not all like that believe me. Last time I caught him peeking I beat him to within an inch of his life, he still has the scars if I recall correctly."

"Hmph," was the only answer she got to that.

Tsunade smiled he was more like his parents than he knew. "Naruto…"

"How do you know my name?" She was cut off by Naruto who was now very scared.

"It was written on the inside of your clothes," she shrugged lying. She knew of course because Minato and Kushina had told them what they were planning to call him and at 4 and a half she assumed he couldn't read… the lie seemed safe.

"Hmph," he really did seem to like that expression.

There was a knock at the door and Shizune came in carrying a plate of food. Naruto looked up when he saw food reasoning if these people were going to hurt him they wouldn't be giving him food. Shizune carried the plate over to the boy and put it in front of him before going over to sit by Tsunade.

"Naruto, this is Shizune she is my assistant." The boy looked at Shizune with suspicion but she didn't mind it was expected of the child. Naruto's upbringing left his ability to trust a little short of normal even among shinobi.

"Ehhwo Shizuzeh-san," he said through a mouth full of food. 'So he is starting to trust us,' Tsunade thought.

"Naruto-chan," Shizune replied. The boy smiled at this not many people had ever called him that.

Naruto finished his food in record time before passing the plate back to Shizune and standing up.

"Where are you going?" Tsunade asked confused.

"You've given me a meal and patched me up. All other doctors say I have to go after that." He said befuddled.

"We are medics Naruto-chan but at the moment we are not doctors like the ones you know. You are not in a hospital you are in an inn just about 15 miles from Kohona. After those people attacked you you crawled outside Kohona's gates. We brought you here so we could patch you up and look after you until you are old enough to go back to the village."

He stood stock still before nodding slightly it would be better called the inclining of one's head. "I would like that," he said simply. There was no way he was going back there if he could help it, he didn't want the pain they inflicted anymore.

"Good," Tsunade said standing up and picking up the tray at the same time. "You might want to go to sleep you need some rest after what you've been through. Good night."

"Good night," Shizune added.

"Night," Naruto whispered.

Tsunade and Shizune left leaving Naruto to crawl into the bed. It was the softest bed he had ever lead in and just before he fell asleep he thought about his predicament, food, warmth, no pain it was good. Almost too good he thought just before he drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

(With Tsunade and Shizune) "He is damaged," Shizune said worriedly. "Too young to have those eyes, they show so much hate and pain for one so young."

"Don't worry Shizune, we will do all we can for him and if you forget I am the best medic in the world. If I can't help him then who can? Now pass me that sake you said you ordered." Shizune passed the sake across but continued to worry about Naruto, Tsunade was a great there was no argument against that but Shizune was sure that it wasn't a medical jutsu that would cure the boys problem.

-X-

Hinata Hyuga woke up her body was bruised but only slightly. Her father wasn't going to leave any marks was he. She laughed a little thinking about it, The Hyuga Clan the most powerful in many eyes but the least loving and compassionate. She wondered what would happen if a Hyuga ever showed love, would they internally combust or something. Her mother showed love but only a little and she was treated as a slight out cast because of as it was. Her mother couldn't stand in the way when Hiashi hit her; he wasn't clan leader for nothing. She was good but not that good and she was pregnant again there was no chance she could get involved and not damage the baby, though she would shout at him to stop from time to time. Any way it kept her disciplined apparently, in pain was more of Hinata's view not that she could voice it of course.

She got up and dressed wincing slightly when she put her clothes on, if she left the house before Hiashi was up she was allowed to train on her own for the day rather than with her father. She did this on a regular basis she would improve less at some stuff with-out Hiashi's training such as the gentle fist style but was better at other taijutsus favoured by others. Things she could pick up by watching other on the training field.

She opened the front door quietly so not to wake anyone else up it wouldn't be fair. The training field she went to was empty except for a woman who seemed to be practising a taijutsu that focused on flexibility and balance. Hinata had many weak points but 2 of her strongest by far ere her balance and flexibility so she fell into a stance behind the woman and tried to copy her actions. This lasted for precisely 2 minutes.

"BRAT! Why are you copying my moves for!"

"Gomen," Hinata said bowing her head. "Just your style is incredible."

"That it is squirt that it is but it has nothing to do with you!"

"I am Hyuga Hinata, I am sorry for practising your style but could you please tell me what it is called. The Gentle Fist is not suited to me and I have no ability to perform it."

The women looked at her suspiciously, "Dragon style it is not of any clan, something my master taught me a while back and who told you that you are no good with the Gentle Fist style?"

"My father,"

"Hiashi Hyuga…" The woman walked closer to her, "how old are you brat?"

"4 and a half, why?"

"He sends you out here at 5 in the morning to practise?"

"No, I come here at 5 because it is better than training at home and making a mistake."

"Hmph," the woman said contemplating something, "do you know who I am brat?" she asked seeing if the girl knew anything of her past to see if she was as prejudiced as the rest of them.

"I don't sorry,"

"Don't be sorry, it is foolish to be sorry when you have done nothing wrong. Mitsarashi Anko is my name and you better remember it." She then walked off to the other side of the training field where she was before and settled back into the stance she was in before. Hinata turned about and repeated the movements of the Iron Fist technique she had learned a while back from a strange guy in a jump suit.

"BRAT!" Mitsarashi shouted across the field. "Why aren't you following?"

Hinata turned around biting back the reply about the fact she had just shouted at her not to and fell into the 1st stance again.

"NO! The 1st stance has to look like this!" Anko shouted smiling though. Hinata sighed but adjusted her stance slightly this was going to be a long, hard but in lighting day.

Naruto awoke wondering where he was. Looking around he remembered Tsunade and what had befallen him so suddenly. He stretched and got out of bed, making it then looking around for his clothes. Not realising that he wasn't even wearing his own pyjamas. There was a pile of clothes at the foot of the bed they weren't his old ones but they seemed to be for him. The t-shirt was black like before with ninja mesh from the bicep down, with a long trench coat that was black and reached his ankles. The trousers went all the way down to his ankles and were grey along with a pair or ninja boots. There were also 2 bands that went around his wrists and 2 that went around each ankle. As he put them on they seemed to weigh him down a little but not much because the weight wasn't very much. He changed into them and then opened the door and went to find Tsunade. The corridor outside his room was covered in a thread bare red carpet luckily for him Tsunade was in the room next to him with papers strewn across a small table. Shizune stood behind her making breakfast on a stove that was lit by a small fireball jutsu not that Naruto knew that.

"What are you doing Tsunade-san?" Naruto asked looking at the paper nearest him he didn't understand any of it, it all seemed like squiggles to him.

"This is a case study Naruto, how I make money. People mail me diseases that they can't cure or injuries that seem impossible. I can most of the time come up with a solution for them and then they pay me." She said taking a swig from her glass of sake that sat next to her.

"But how can you understand what all the squiggles and diagrams say?" Naruto asked confused still.

"Each symbol symbolises a sound," she said, "look come here." She beckoned him over. Grabbing a spare sheet of paper she spelt out very slowly NA-RU-TO. "You see each letter is a noise, Na-Ru-To, that is how you spell your name." Naruto looked at it stunned wondering how this could mean that and how that could mean this.

"Teach me!" He said staring at the paper begging to know more. Tsunade smiled at his thirst for knowledge even at a young age.

"Course Naru-chan," She said shortening his name automatically. At this he smiled and sat down in the chair next to her. It was going to be a good day for them both that day.

Shizune smiled to herself as she finished up breakfast, Tsunade hadn't shortened anyone's name since Nawaki.

**Well there you go, bit longer than the last one I think not sure though. Naruto won't be that op maybe at Gaara's level during the chuunin exams...? Good idea, bad idea?**

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	3. Chapter 3

**Hayo, me again. 3rd chapter Hope you like it XD**

**I DON'T OWN NARUTO! Or do I? Am I Kishimoto-sama? We will find out after the break!**

**Rose Tiger + Gravity Wizard: Yeah, I had it pointed it out to me, numerous times by the same person... Thanks :) It's nice to hear XD**

**a : I agree I'm not saying that he won't be stronger but look at his chakra control it sucks without use of a better word. He just has too much chakra to be a great medic nin, not that he couldn't master the basics... And super strength he is definately getting that but he is only 4 and a half at the min so... later **

**anotamous : Ok... Trying to formulate argument... Umm... The Strength of those 'Left Behind'... Not trying to be rude but she gains a lot of her resolve to fight from her family and what happens with Neji and how she deals with that. Also I thought Anko would give her a bit more back bone...**

"So this says Jin-chu-ri-ki?" Naruto asked looking at the word written down on the page of Tsunade's medical notes. Tsunade looked over from what she was doing and over to what he was reading.

"Yes petal it does. Well done but those words are complex and quite difficult why don't you read the books I gave you?" She asked scanning what he was reading it was a list of known Jinchurikis and their wear a bouts and amount of chakra each beats would give them.

"They were ok but they were a little boring Tsu-san. Once you read the first one you know how they were all going to end the good guys will always win the princess will always get the prince and the bad guy banished to some unknown place." Naruto grumbled.

"Hmmm… Well how about this?" She looked around and found a volume on basic medicine and medical ninjutsu it was a text book but at least it wouldn't be as boring as the fairy stories for him well hopefully.

"What is it?" He asked looking at it a bit unsure. "It seems to say Basic Medicine…"

"Yes dear, that is because that is what it says."

"Why have you given me a text book?"

"You said you were bored. Are you not bored there is still the washing up from breakfast to be done if you are?"

"Nope not bored, never bored." Naruto said very quickly removing himself from the room with the book.

Tsunade looked back at her notes and thought about the problem which was the fact the poor demon container of the Shikaku, Gaara couldn't sleep. This made the poor child grumpier than the average demon container which could be very grumpy. It said that the Shikaku was the least powerful of all the demons but Naruto could sleep and Gaara couldn't so it couldn't be anything to do with chakra. She took a drink of sake thinking deeply, the Shikaku was sealed inside Gaara at birth but the sealing hadn't been done by such a master as Minato had been it seemed haphazard and wrong. Almost as if the person had tried to meld the soul of the Shikaku onto that of Gaara's which was bound to cause problems but she wasn't a master on seals so she wasn't sure. This wasn't even a paid assignment it was more of a personal project. She had been reading into Jinchuriki as much as she possibly could anything that would help her understand Naruto more.

Naruto was an enigma to her. He was reading by himself after a couple of hours after she started teaching him albeit quite slowly and with a lot of sounding out but still reading. His grasp of how each symbol was a sound was amazing now and then he would come to her with symbols he could not understand or didn't recognise because he had never seen before but he was getting more and more confident as time passed. The book she has just given him was meant for academy students with a talent for chakra control not as a learning to read guide but he had just told her those were boring. He could just be naturally clever which Tsunade didn't doubt he was but learning to read that quickly was a gift it was as if he understand the complex rather than the simple because to him the complex was simple. He would take a while on the basic medical jutsu but if she explained to him the theory of the jutsu to heal broken arms he would get it scarily quickly. She wondered how she was going to train him to any brilliant standard. She was a medical specialist and he had too much chakra for a career in medicine to be a realistic option so he needed some kind of ninjutsu training from someone who knew his father's techniques. The only person she could think of was Jiriya but she didn't want him around the boy any more than humanly possible at the moment she didn't need him thinking that the sannin was a special group of legendary perverts again well at least not all of them. Jiriya seemed to pride himself in the fact he was a SUPER PERVERT.

"Tsunade-san" Shizune's words brought Tsunade out of her thoughts and back into the real world.

"Yes,"

"Why did Naruto just ask me about lacerations and what they are?" She wasn't being snappy she was just wondering about Tsunade's intentions.

"Because I gave him a book on basic medical jutsu, he got bored of the learning to read books."

"He gets bored very fast doesn't he?"

"Yes," Tsunade sighed, "Yes he does."

"When are you going to tell him about his parents?"

Tsunade wasn't shocked Shizune was sometimes a little random with her train of thoughts. "When a child is old enough to have the capacity to question it is only fair to reason they have the capacity to understand the answer."

Shizune nodded there was no way she could doubt her reasoning that was the way between her and Tsunade if either asked a question the answer was always given and if necessary explained. She looked over at the medical books spread on the table, furrowing her eye brows she looked at one.

"What's that?" She asked.

Tsunade smiled, "That is the piece of paper where Naruto learned to write his name,"

Shizune studied the paper and tried to think what was wrong with it. Then she remembered that Tsunade had told her that the 4th had given Naruto Kushina's last name so he was Naruto Uzumaki. Written across the page in untidy hand writing again and again was his name, Naruto Namikaze.

-x-

Hinata was being shaken awake by Neji at 5 in the morning.

"Good morning Hinata-san."

"'Mornin' Neji-kun."

"Don't call me kun it is beneath you,"

"Of course, Neji-kun and call me Hinata-chan since I am your cousin."

"Of course, Hinata-san."

This had become a morning ritual for them, Neji had noticed a week or so ago that she liked to get up at 5 to go and train so instead of setting a loud alarm clock he would come and wake her up. It was just more practical and if that was something to be said for the Hyuga clan it was their practicality. Hinata thanked him as she did every morning and she got dressed. Her clothes had not changed dramatically but she had taken to wearing a light weight on each arm and leg under Anko-sensei's suggestion. Suggestion in Anko's terms was order but she liked to keep the tone between her and her student light. It had been a week since Anko had shouted at her to do the 1st stance of the Dragon taijutsu properly and that had been what they were focusing on. Today was a little different Hinata saw as she reached the training field it was littered with various weapons of all shapes and sizes, from senbon to katana and the smallest tessin to Holy Water Sprinklers.

"A-Anko-sensei… Why are all these here?" The young girl gestured to all the weapons on the ground.

"Today you are going to learn to dodge," Anko said with a grin on her face as she held the first kunai.

"D-dodge?"

"Avoided, out manoeuvre, veer away from, get out of the way basically I am going to throw pointy things at you and you are going to do your very best to let them not hit you!"

Hinata gulped, she was cross with herself she only stuttered when she was scared and she didn't like people knowing she was scared it made her seem like an easy target. Anko jumped in the air and began to throw the kunai at Hinata, she figured she would go a little easy for the time being only aiming for arms and legs and throwing the same weapon.

"Byakugan!" Hinata said activating her blood line. Funny, Anko thought she hates what her clan stand for but the 1st thing she does is power up her blood line limit.

3 kunai she was holding went for her arms and 2 more for her legs. Hinata jumped in the air to avoid the ones to her legs and turned a half turn around to avoid the ones aimed at her arms.

"Don't jump, brat." Anko commanded, "It wastes too much of your energy more as little as possible to avoid the attacks."

Hinata nodded, thought for a minute before starting to run at her. Anko smiled so she realised it would be harder on Anko if she was moving, Hinata was fast but no fast enough to knock any of Anko's throws off at all though so all she'd done was make it harder on herself.

Anko chose senbon this time picking up 15 she launched them at Hinata each going for a different pressure point up and down her arms and legs. Some would hurt more than others and other wouldn't hurt at all. Hinata shut her eyes and began to slide through the Dragon Fist's stances she wasn't doing them in order but she wasn't hit by on senbon needle and she remained in a fighting stance through-out so her opponent would not have any advantage over her because she was off balance. Anko looked at her in surprise, not many instinctively went through stances most tried to just jump out of the way and Hinata had only been learning the style a week. This kid was surprising her again and again, she had never once complained about the techniques Anko used because she seemed to really truly wish to be stronger. That was very strange for one so young. Also even though she had powered up her Byakugan she wasn't using it she was using some other way to dodge the senbon. Anko resolved to ask her about it later.

"Hmph… Not bad squirt but let's see you do it again!" Anko shouted from the tree branch where she was now perched having got bored of jumping in the air. This time she threw 20 senbon and faster she was going to catch this girl out.

The next few hours passed uneventfully with Hinata dodging more and more dangerous objects getting hit quite a bit but not ever being wounded badly. She always seemed to know out of a group which ones were the most dangerous and there for a priority.

"Meh, look kid I'm sorry but I've got to go I have to go out on a mission." Anko didn't mention she always seemed to get the most dangerous missions with the least well equipped squids there was no need to worry the kid any more than necessary. With Hiashi Hyuga as a father she already had enough.

"Don't die."

"I'll try."

"Hmph." Hinata nodded and turned away heading towards the logs as Anko teleported away to her mission. Even if Anko wasn't here she was going to practise what she knew. She powered down her Byakugan and slid into the first stance when Neji came up behind her.

"Hinata-san." Hinata jumped about 5 foot in the air she hadn't even heard him come up behind her. Well, she reasoned this was Neji, he was truly brilliant sometimes.

"Hai,"

"It's urgent! You must come with me!" He ran off in the direction of the Hyuga compound. Hinata ran after him as fast as her legs would carry her.

"NE! NEJI! WHAT'S WRONG?" She shouted as she chased after him. He was of course faster than her.

He stopped suddenly and turned around to see her face. She almost crashed into him she was going so fast. "It's your mother, Hinata. She has gone into labour."

**Ok... I'm not Kishimoto-sama... :P Damn! Hope you enjoyed... **


	4. Olive Juice

**Hayo, 3rd chapter it is a little shorter than the rest by about 500 words but I didn't want to put Naruto's part on so it is just Hinata. **

**Thanks to : SageMidnight, formally_known_as_danni55, Okazaki323,evil-x-love, darkspear, Rose_Tiger**

**To Kii : He is still on the leaf's books as Naruto Uzumaki but he lives his life as Naruto Namikaze. **

**Any people who review but do not leave a name or way of communication will have their reviews deleted. I'm sorry I didn't mention this before that wsa a lack of fore sight on my part. **

**I DON'T OWN NARUTO! As we figured out last time :P**

**IMPORTANT : If you say Olive Juice it looks like you are saying I love you. Your mouth makes the same shapes. **

Hinata slumped on the floor outside her mother's room. She had been barred from entering by the midwives they said she would just be in the way. Even though she protested she was told in no uncertain terms that if she annoyed them any further she would be locked in her room until further notice. So she sat outside the room on the floor with her knees pressed to her chest. The floor in the Hyuga compound was wooden so the floor was quite hard. The only good point in Hinata's view was that Hiashi wasn't allowed in either. She didn't know if she wanted a brother or sister. Another person who would have to learn to watch everything they said or did. A younger sister would probably be best, they would argue less than if it was a boy, at least that is what Hinata thought. She tried to block out the sound coming from behind the door, she focused all her attention on a pattern that ran through the wooden flooring. The screams of her mother, it sounded like she was in so much pain almost as if something was being torn from her body. As if a kunai was slitting her from throat to end, then flaying her and displaying her skin a glass cabinet for all of her family to see. It was horrible to be honest and not something any person would want a 4 and half a girl to hear but they were shinobi and shinobi lived in a world where 4 and half year olds would imagine flaying.

Hiashi sat in a chair a few meters away sitting in an uncomfortable looking chair sitting with his heads in his hands. Hinata had never seen her father look so worried about another person before. Sure, he would wish Hyuga's who were going on mission good luck but she had never seen him with his knuckles white from being clenched so hard or his eyes looked so dark from lack of sleep. '_Maybe he truly did love her,' _Hinata thought looking at him. It was hard for her to process this thought because even though he was her father she loathed him with almost all of her being. For the things he decided for the clan, for the family, for her, the council advised him but he was the main man and it all fell on him and he made the wrong decision in her mind, always the wrong decision in Hinata's mind.

"HYUGA-SAMA!" One of the midwives shouted hurtling through the door at Hiashi. She composed herself slightly as she skidded to a halt in front of the anxious clan head; she adjusted her skirt and fixed her glasses that looked like they were going to fall of the end of her nose. "You are ummm…. Needed urr…. In there…," she said pointing at the door containing his wife. _'If this was the best midwives Hiashi could get,'_ Hinata thought damningly, _'then it is a wonder I am alive.' _

Hiashi nodded trying to relax his hands so he didn't look like a worried husband. '_Liar,' _Hinata thought looking at his change in posture. That was one thing Hiashi was good at and that was acting. He stood and walked stiffly towards the door, opened it and stepped in. The door shut behind him, the wood marking the line that Hinata could not cross.

She couldn't hear anything particular behind the door just muffled speaking and the screaming of her mother. She didn't know why Hiashi had been called in, the baby hadn't been born yet or the midwives would have come out with the baby.

Hinata moved closer to the door knob why her father had been called worried her. There was no need unless there was a complication with the pregnancy and if that was the case Hinata wanted to know about it. She edged closer and closer to the keyhole knowing that if she got caught earwigging she would be disciplined; it was not the way of the Hyuga to get caught doing things one should not do. Then came the first solid thing she heard from the room, the first words that she heard through the door.

"Save the baby," Hiashi's voice echoed like a bell in Hinata's as she moved away from the doorway as fast as possible. He had signed her death warrant, sent her off to sing with the choir invisible. It wasn't even a suggestion it was a decision one that he alone had made. Hinata had never even heard her mother speak of such matters. It was always going to go ok that was her mother's way but now it was not ok at all. Thoughts ploughed through Hinata's head like huge trucks barrelling down the motorway at 60mph. How to help, to save her mother, the baby in her mind was not as important as her mother, she could always have other kids anyway. She was about to run into the room screaming about the injustices of it all when Hiashi stepped out of the room closing the door firmly behind him. He looked at his daughter with a cold look of one going through great pain but wanted to keep up a cool façade. He spun on his heel and headed into the rabbit warren that was the Hyuga compound. Hinata didn't noticed how as soon as he turned his back to her he was silently sobbing or how his voice had given out on him half way through telling the midwives to save the baby. She didn't want to notice these things, these things made her unmoving, unemotional, unfeeling father, human. She didn't want to except that Hiashi felt the same way to about her mother, that unconditional love. That would make them connected in some way and she didn't want to be connected at all. So she didn't notice, mention or speak of that day ever again in front of her father because it would make her father human again.

She didn't notice she was crying her tears staining the wooden floor or that she was shaking uncontrollably or that she was starting to get up. She stumbled almost blind to the world towards the door her hand gripping the cold door knob even though Hiashi had just been touching it. She opened the door and stepped over the line disobeying her father and therefore the clan.

Hinata almost screamed at the sight of her mother. Her energetic, caring, lively mother reduced to this. Her hair was lax and thin, her head was turned towards but it was so pale she looked like a ghost. Her stomach was huge and looked bloated, there was blood coming from somewhere Hinata did not know where from but it was starting to congeal on the sheets. Her mother's hands gripped the bed sheets she was laying on as hard she possibly could. The midwives didn't make a move to evict Hinata from the room. They all seemed to be doing the best they could for her mother.

"Hinata," Her mother's voice was weak as she called Hinata over. "Don't hate her Hinata; she didn't kill me it was my decision to go through with this not hers. She didn't choose to be born."

One of her mother's hands reached out and held her as close to her as possible.

"Her name will be Hanabi, love her, protect her from the world, help her, don't hate her Hinata." Her mother paused she was barely getting the words out.

"Hi-chan," Hinata's cries became louder, her mother only used her pet name for her when either of them were really upset. "You've done so well, you will be such a great shinobi. You will change the world my daughter, set it on fire, live life how you want to not how others think you should Hi-chan and love the world you live in." Her mother paused struggling with the last few words.

"Protect your precious people. Olive juice, my daughter, olive juice."

Hinata's voice was soft and small barely audible through her tears, "Olive juice, Mama, olive juice."

Her mother grasped her small hand in her and gave one last squeeze of her hand before the light began to leave her eyes.

"NO! Mama NO! Don't GO DON'T LEAVE ME! DON'T LEAVE!" Hinata's cries fell on deaf ears; there was nothing anyone could do for her mother now, nothing anybody in this world could have done. One of the midwives came up behind her with a small bundle wrapped up in cloth, tapping the crying girl gently to get her attention.

"Hinata," she said holding out the bundle out to her, "this is your sister, Hanabi."

Hinata looked at her if she was crazy, pushing past her and out through the door. Her tearstained face telling the world she was upset. She heard people shout after her but she kept running. She knew that her mother had told her to look after Hanabi and she would once she had mourned her mother.

She ran to her room and slammed the door behind her, kicking the lock across so no one could get in. She was a Hyuga and she was going to cry and she was going to cry alone because she was a Hyuga and Hyugas cry alone.

**Anyway am thinking of time skipping a bit now. 6th birthday, 8th, 10th, return to Kohona? Good, bad?**


	5. Naruto's 6th Brithday

**Hayo XD Sorry this own took a while... It was New Year and I was at a couple of house parties ;P**

**Kii-san : Yeah, I think they start the academy at 5, not sure though... Hinata at 6 is going to be the next chapter then I might jump straight to 10**

**Rose_Tiger : I agree... But some things have to happen**

**64teeth : I might jump straight to 10 after doing Hinata at 6 because you are right about childhood being a bit boring and I want to write about him interacting with the Kohona 12 or 11 :P**

**Robinater115 : He's not going to be stupidly op, but I'm thinking the only genin who would be able to beat to be Shikamaru because of his logic abilites but it would be VERY close.**

**Patriot-112 : Thanks, it is only Hiashi at the moment really, Neji is still functioning as a normal human being because the thing with his father hasn't happened yet and he doesn't hate the main branch**

**Uzumaki_Ricky : Thanks XD**

**brightnight : I just meant that if you didn't leave anyway of me contacting you, you're fine. It just annoys me if people slag my work off and then don't give me a chance to talk to them about it.**

**I DON'T OWN NARUTO! Just all the Naruto presents people have bought me :P**

Naruto woke up sitting straight up in bed. They had found a rented house in some unknown village in the Land of Waves. Today was his sixth birthday and he was very excited, he had never experienced a birthday party until last year and Tsunade had made it such a party to try and make up for the things Kohona had done to him. There had been cake, music, presents everything he wanted. He was with his family as he now thought of them, his Kaa-san and Nee-san; they had made his life happy. Last year he had received, a new shuriken and kunai set from Shizune and a weight suite from Tsunade. It was a stylish weight suite as well; it could be worn underneath his clothes. It was only 500 pounds but too much weight on young bones can lengthen them.

He didn't know what to expect this year, maybe another weight suite that would be quite good. He didn't need more shuriken or kunai he had taken very good care of the ones he had got from Shizune. He treasured things he received from his family, it may have been because he had never got a birthday present before or any type of present before for a matter of fact.

He pulled on his weight suite and clothes before heading towards the door. His clothing hadn't really changed in the last couple of years. His t-shirt was still black but his trench coat had gained huge collars and a hood. His hair had grown longer also, so now that it reached his shoulders he hadn't done it in conscious attempt to mimic his father. It just seemed more natural to him to have his hair longer. His eyes were still a piercing blue which was a constant worry for Tsunade who thought someone would recognize him by them but she had knew that it would not be fair for him to change the colour.

He stepped out of the door to his room and headed to the kitchen, slumping down in of the chairs.

"Morn' Kaa-san,"

"Good morning, did you sleep well?"

"Not at all, it took me forever to get off to sleep because I was excited." Tsunade smiled at this.

"Present have to wait until after breakfast and normal lessons, remember?" Tsunade said trying not to seem harsh but that was just the way it worked. It was so Naruto didn't concentrate in his normal (non shinobi) lessons because he was bugging to use his open presents.

Naruto nodded, smiling at Shizune-Neesan as she entered. Tsunade dumped a bowl of cereal in front of him and he began to eat it dutifully. Even though he didn't really like cereal and if he had it his way he would have had ramen for breakfast, lunch and dinner but Tsunade had put a stop to that and tried to give him a balanced diet, ramen was only for special occasions. Finishing up his cereal he got up picking up the bowl and putting it in the sink.

"Neesan?" he asked. Looking over to where Shizune was leaning against the worktop waiting for him to finish eating.

"Uhuh."

"Can we do something interesting today?" Shizune looked at him puzzled he usually was very enthusiastic about school work.

"What do you mean by interesting?" She wasn't hurt just curious.

"Like… Kohona History or something, we never do any Kohona history though we have covered all other ninja villages. It would be nice to know about the place even if I don't live there anymore." Shizune winced she hadn't taught him Kohona's history for a particular reason, Kohona's history would contain the Kyubi and even though Naruto had now come to terms with the fact he was the jailer and not the fox it was not something they liked to bring up often.

"Kohona's History… sure we could cover some of that if you want after literacy and numeracy." The school day went something like this, 1 hour of Maths, then 1 hour of English followed by any other subject which included but were not limited to, History of the World, History of the Shinobi Villages, Medicine, Geography, Codes and Ciphers and Tactics. Naruto enjoyed the last hour more than the first 2 but he understood why they were important.

Naruto nodded satisfied but that didn't stop him adding something else. "Could we possibly touch upon the Hokages as well?" Tsunade was very shocked by this, so shocked in fact that she was frozen with her spoon she was using to eat her cereal with was frozen between the bowl and her mouth, (she had got herself some breakfast while they were talking). Tsunade wasn't usually shocked by anything so this was a rare event but Naruto hadn't even made it clear that he even knew the name of the leader of Kohonagakure or ever wished to.

It was Shizune who spoke, "Yeah Naru-chan I'm sure we could, the 1st and 2nd Hokages were very important in the creation of the village." She tried to seem confident and that his request hadn't shaken her.

"What about the others?" Naruto pressed.

"The other Hokages?"

"Yeah."

"The 3rd was called Sarutobi and the 4th was nicknamed The Yellow Flash because he could move so fast." Shizune hadn't told Naruto Minato's last name because he had never asked about his birth parents so Tsunade had assumed that Naruto didn't want to know. Though they may have to sit him down quite soon and go through it all with him.

"Who's the Hokage now, The Yellow Flash?" Naruto asked looking confused he remembered he had a vague memory of someone called the Hokage being very old.

"No, Sarutobi is Hokage again now."

"Why?" Tsunade was eating again now but looked wistful and remorseful when she answered instead of Shizune.

"He died Naru-chan; he died young, far too young. Now quick hurry off to your lessons, the sooner you get started, the sooner you can finish, the sooner you can open your presents."

Naruto smiled blindingly all thought of Hokages gone for the minute as he ran out of the room and into the living room where lessons were always held. Shizune looked at Tsunade who was looking upset. "We did all we could for Minato," she said quietly, looking at Naruto who was now waiting for her.

"True, that we did, we did all we could for Minato-kun" she said following Shizune's train of thought, "it was Kushina we left behind." Shizune looked at Tsunade worriedly; she knew that she felt very guilty for not being there for Kushina at Naruto's birth. "Don't worry about me," Tsunade said waving Shizune away, "go help Naruto with his lessons he needs you." Shizune left but not without a backwards glance at Tsunade.

As soon as she was gone Tsunade grabbed the idle bottle of sake that was sitting on the worktop. She wouldn't have much she promised herself, it was Naruto's birthday and 7 in the morning but right now she needed it.

Naruto scratched the back of his head, "So why didn't the 3rd pick Orochimaru to be the next Hokage?" Shizune was explaining the process of choosing the 4th Hokage to Naruto. It was easier than touching on the subject of Minato-san's death. They had finished their maths lesson about 45 minutes ago and Naruto was starting to get distracted by the thoughts of presents.

"Orochimaru was found in his own laboratories, he was experimenting on Kohona shinobi."

"Was he mad?"

"Yes, Naru-chan, most agree that Orochimaru is mad."

"Is mad? Didn't the 3rd have him executed for treason?" Shizune sighed she'd hoped he wouldn't have picked up on that.

"No he didn't, you have to remember that Orochimaru was once his student. He couldn't bring himself to kill his student."

"That's stupid."

"Yes, many agree that it was stupid also." Shizune said adding in her head, 'including me and your Kaa-san'. She didn't think it was fair to bias the small boy.

"So is Orochimaru still in Kohona?"

"No not even his sensei would allow that, he fled, no one knows where he is."

"Hmm…"

Shizune checked the clock; officially they still had 10 minutes but since it was his birthday and the next candidate to talk about was Minato. _'If they were going to go there,' Shizune thought, 'We're going to spend a day on him; there is no way I'm leaving anything out!'_

"Ne, Naruto, since it's your birthday and I want to cover the next candidate _'your father'_ in quite a lot of detail there is no real point in starting this next bit. We might as well stop for the day." (Shizune didn't say the bit in italics she though it).

Naruto looked at her shocked; they had never finished early before and he wasn't expecting it. He wasn't going to turn down a chance to get at his present quicker though whatever the reason. He then started nodding hyperactively, he wasn't usually hyperactive but it was his birthday.

"Really? REALLY?"

"Yup," Shizune smiled at his antics, her little bro was really cute sometimes.

Naruto then smiled on his smiles that would make him a legend, well with the ladies at least before running of to find Tsunade. He proceeded to find her and drag her from her medical work and towards the living room.

"I've finished my lessons Kaa-san," He looked at her expectantly.

"Yes it seems that you have," she said looking back as him with a smirk. "Well," she said before sitting down on the couch next to Shizune, "you might want this then." She held out his present from her to him.

He took it from her looking at it confused, it felt a bit like clothes and it seemed a bit squishy. He looked at her, "Clothes?" he queried.

"Might be," Tsunade said with a smirk.

He tore open the wrapping excitedly, he really wanted to know what was inside. What he saw was a bit like a trench coat and a bit like a cape. It was white all over but not bright white a bit more beige. He quickly shrugged off his other trench coat and it fell on the floor. He swung the coat over his shoulders and put his arms in the appropriate holes. Shizune gasped as he turned to show them what he looked like, Tsunade had told her what she'd bought but he looked so much like Minato-san it was shocking. Tsunade turned to smile at her, she could have got him ones with flames on it but he wasn't ready for that yet and anyway he wasn't Minato Namikaze he was Naruto Namikaze and he could wear what he liked.

"Like it?" Tsunade asked holding her breath, "you could keep wearing the black one if you prefer."

"No." Naruto said looking down at himself. "I like this, it makes me look… I don't know what it makes me look like but I know I like it." He smirked at his mother, "It's brilliant, thanks."

"No problem, for you nothing is a problem."

Shizune smiled Tsunade was so much happier than she had been before Naruto and she had stopped gambling as much which was why they could stay in one place for quite a long time. No one was going to come banging on their door asking for money they didn't have.

"Here," Shizune said handing another present to Naruto this one was from her. "Open your one from me."

He took it and then sat cross legged on the carpet. "Thanks Kaa-san, Neesan," he said before proceeding to tare that wrapping off another present. He held it up looking at it in detail. It was another weight suite but this one was the next level up and it was much heavier than the one he was wearing at the moment. He placed it carefully put it back in the box, he couldn't put it on now he would put it on 1st thing tomorrow.

"Thanks Neesan," he said, he gestured to himself. "This one was starting to feel normal again." Shizune laughed, even though it was a piece of training equipment Naruto loved it and that was all that mattered.

Tsunade was laughing to, _'It is SO nice to have a family,'_ she thought looking at Naruto. "You know what it is time for now, don't you Naruto?" Tsunade asked as she stood up. Shizune stoop up too and so did Naruto.

"Yep," he said smirking slightly as he did but he opened his mouth and shouted as loud as he could, "RAMEN TIME!"

**Number 5, Woop... This is going better than I expected XD Any thoughts on Naruto learning kenjutsu? and when he sould come back, for the genin teams or chunin exams?**

**Saiyuxx**


	6. Hinata Age 6

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Arba : I don't think I'm going to go much into Naruto's training as chapters and might write some of them as flashbacks during fights. I'm going with Chunnin exams I think. XD I want to get back with the Cannon quite soon. XD

Kii-san : Yeah but then who goes in team 7 with Sasuke and Sakura? Maybe Naruto after the Chunnin exams because I want him in Kohona.

Robinator115 : Yeah, sorry 'bout that I just can't see a way of doing it rather than merging chapters together. J

Darkspear1 : Chunnin exams I think, give the old man more of a heart attack with how good he is? XD It isn't directly from Calvin and Hobbes but I agree it does sound like it, my favourite one from Calvin and Hobbes would have to be where he puts a snowball in the freezer all spring so he can throw it in summer :P She won't want to come back to Kohona with Naruto but she will because they are family and she wants him to improve, the Chunnin exams are a good way of doing that. Thanks. :L

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Matsumotomoon : I'm going to involve Jiraiya next chapter maybe because I want him to learn shadow clones and sign the toad summoning scroll. Thanks :D

Leoni_Liponscovi : Thanks XD

MWKillkenny84 : Hinata will be more confident after her training with Anko which is why I did it, if I put her on a team with Naruto after the Chunnin exams where would Kiba go? Thanks for the rating XD

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Cake guy : The Sasuke/Naruto rivalry is always quite fun to play with :P Thanks

I DON'T OWN NARUTO! But how rich would I be if I did...?

Hinata woke up in a cold morning in the middle of winter. The fire in her room was already lit by a branch member whose name she did not know. She tried to learn the names of the branch members just as much as she did the main house but there were a lot more of them. Neji had stopped waking her up about a year ago. She wasn't sure why but she assumed it was something about the fact that his father had been executed for something he didn't do. He had become cold after that Hinata remembered, she had tried to cheer him up but it didn't help that it was her father that should have been executed.

She dressed quickly, pulling on her clothes. Her weights had got heavier, she would go up a class when she could walk and move normally with her weights on. She didn't wear a weight suite though she didn't even know they existed, Anko had never mentioned them to her. Her jacket was a dark purple, and was usually left unzipped. Her t-shirt was black, a bit baggy but not hugely and long sleeved, she found it comfortable. She wore black cargo pants with a purple strip down the side, the fell to about her knees. Ninja mesh bridged the gap between her ankles and the cargo pants.

She walked along the corridor towards Hanabi's room she had warmed to her little sister over the past year. There was no way that Hiashi was going to look after properly and would leave it to the branch family. Hinata tried her best to be there for her sister so that she didn't feel alone in her life but Hinata had to go to school, train, and now that her mother was dead the cooking for her and Hanabi (Hiashi employed a cook for himself but not for the girls). She tucked her in at night and woke her up in the morning and got her dressed and ready for the day. Her sister was only 2 and wasn't supposed to train or leave the compound by herself so Hanabi would spend the day in her room with a branch member and some coloured bricks.

She stepped into her sister's room the walls were covered in pictures Hanabi had done. If anyone on the council saw them they would have to be taken down but none of them ever bothered with Hanabi at least not for the time being.

"Hanabi," Hinata said softly stroking her sister's shoulder. "You need to wake up now poppet,"

"Hmmuummym." Hanabi's answer made no sense to anyone but Hinata got the meaning when her sister lifted her arms in the air.

"Course," Hinata smiled at her and picked her up and carried her on her hip towards the kitchen. She popped 2 pieces of bread into the toaster for her and one that she would mush up when it popped for Hanabi but first things first Hinata placed Hanabi in her high chair and began mushing up into a bowl, a banana. She grabbed a spoon from an open draw of cutlery closing it with her hip; someone could have banged into it if they weren't careful. She carefully put Hanabi's bib on and put the spin in the banana.

"Look Hanabi, here's an aeroplane, zannnoommm, zannooommm." She mimicked an aeroplane flying back and forth until landing in Hanabi's open mouth.

"Nom, nom, nom," Hinata said miming chewing. "There's a good girl," Hinata smiled she enjoyed doing this but she couldn't be there for Hanabi as much as she liked. She couldn't be her mother all the time.

After they had finished breakfast, Hinata cleaned up the kitchen and carried Hanabi back to her room where her nanny was waiting.

"Be good Hanabi," Hinata said as she messed with her sister's hair. Hanabi just laughed at her silly older sister. She bid farewell to the branch member whose name was Nazai and left the room to pick up her school bag. _'She is such a good sister," Nazai thought as Hinata left. "She makes Hanabi's life so much better." _

Hinata's bag was heavy and she wished she could leave her books in school rather than lug them home all the time. By the time she reached the academy she was wishing she'd worn a scarf and a pair of gloves. She walked straight past Sakura and Ino who were sitting together discussing everything Sasuke. Hinata shook her head, they were so obsessed, the boy was obviously not interested. Hinata hated him in a way, he showed no outward emotion to anyone, no kindness and he thought himself above everyone else because he was an Uchiha. He didn't even answer when they spoke to him or even acknowledge their existence. She sat down next to Shino on one side and Shikamaru on the other with Choji next to him. Kiba would have been on the other side of Shino but he was obviously running late. Very late, by the look of it as Iruka walked into the class room, followed by a late Kiba who looked a bit sheepish.

"Sorry I'm late sensei." Kiba said actually looking sorry, he wasn't usually late.

"Just sit down," Iruka said gesturing towards the seat next to Shino. Hinata smirked, how Kiba managed to get away with things like that with Iruka confused her, Iruka would have shouted at anyone else and given them a lecture about responsibility.

"Right," Iruka said after Kiba had sat down and he'd taken the register/attendance. "The first lesson today will be on Kohona History and if you lucky lot remember you have a test today!"

Hinata smiled she didn't mind test she always scored top marks because she studied a lot with Anko. Sakura was always a close second but she didn't revise much, she thought she knew it all without having to revise. Mizuki handed out the test papers face down to all the students and when Iruka sensei said to start they all turned them over.

Hinata breezed through the test the questions weren't that hard as long as you had revised. It was the last one that made Hinata pause, 'What do you consider to be the most important trait in a Hokage and why?' Hinata smiled, she remembered the words her mother had told her as if it was yesterday. So she wrote down in her precise handwriting, 'The will of fire, the wish to protect your precious people because that is the responsibility of the Hokage to protect the village and the people in it. If a shinobi dies, it is his fault, his responsibility to stop death and to protect those he sends into battle. To protect the village with all his strength even if all seems hopeless to inspire hope.' She knew that some of the others in her class would write strength and she understood why that was important but she did not think it was the most important.

"Ok," Iruka said clapping his hands together getting the classes attention. "You should have all finished that by now, so Mizuki if you would." Mizuki nodded and collected all the papers. Hinata smirked as she saw how much Sakura had written for the last question, she'd written what seemed to be a whole page. She didn't understand that sometimes less was more or better, to save you strength and use a quick, strike to get past you enemy's defences than rush in with no idea of the situation.

The rest of the day past quite quickly for Hinata, she took notes dutifully like any other day but her mind wondered as she thought more complex than what Iruka was saying. She had already been over the topics they were covering with Anko; Anko would teach her extra things that she thought it would be good for Hinata to know. Most of these weren't covered in class yet but when they did Hinata got a bit bored.

She was relieved when the bell went for the end of the day. It was not that she didn't like other people or that she was antisocial in any way it was more like she preferred spending time with people she completely trusted like Anko. She would happily make friends with people and gain their trust but she didn't really see the point when she had friends already. It wasn't like she didn't the people in her class it was just she preferred Anko's company.

She walked over to the training field where she always met Anko. She would only train until 5 and then she would go home and cook for her and Hanabi, then she would put Hanabi to bed and do all her homework before turning in herself.

"HAYO, SQUIRT!" Anko shouted as she saw Hinata walk onto the training field. Hinata smiled she had got used to Anko shouting a lot of things rather than saying them and her insulting you was her way of saying that she liked you.

"Anko-Neesan," Hinata said smirking at Anko, Hinata felt very close to Anko and Anko hated type of outward affection in public so it annoyed her when Hinata called her that.

"How was school?"

"Test, quite easy, then stuff I already knew for the rest of the day."

"Didn't you tell Iruka that you already knew the stuff?"

"What difference would that make the rest still don't and he has to teach the whole class?"

"Humph… I might go have a word with him about it later."

Hinata cringed she could just see Anko striding into the academy and 'talking' more like shouting at poor Iruka-sensei.

"Back on track then, genjutsu today then." Hinata smiled it wasn't as if she didn't like the other shinobi skills it was just she preferred genjutsu and taijutsu. She was changing the dragon style slightly as to improve it by using her good chakra control. She emitted a slight chakra pulse from her hands so to make the movements stronger and quicker. Her genjutsu was good but Anko wasn't specialised in genjutsu so she had to get some books from the library to get better than average genjutsu.

At the moment she was working on something that would keep the person she was using it on very happy. They would dream they were living their perfect dream, it was hard to do because you it required a lot of chakra which at her young age Hinata had a bit of, enough to do the jutsu once but then she would be spent. As she would get older her chakra levels would increase and then make the jutsu easier to do.

She spent a good 2 hours training on her genjutsu, she knew there would be people who train more but she spent 2 hours a day and most of the weekends training so she was in good shape very good for kids her own age. She bid goodbye to Anko and headed home. If she had it her way she would have stayed at the training field longer but she needed to get home.

She opened her door and started the chores that were her day to day life, when she had finished and put Hanabi to bed, finished all her homework (it didn't take her very long it wasn't very hard). She crawled into bed, the day had been a long one and genjutsu training was exhausting, she didn't fall asleep straight away she never did but she did fall to sleep quicker than usual. She was very tired after all.

**Sorry it is kind of short and vague, school has just started back and I'm tierd :( They will get longer when he gets back to Kohona and yeah I know Hinata seems a little mature for her age but I wanted to show that she has a lot to deal with and is managing Ok with it. Should Naruto be on Team 7 or on a team with Hinata and Shino... or other? **

**Saiyuxx**


	7. Enter Jiraiya!

**Votes**

**Hinata, Naruto, Shino - 7**

**Any Other Team- 2**

**Ummm… So I guess its Hinata, Naruto, Shino that is team 8 XD**

**Thanks to :**

**dibsonfang**

**Amorous_Grunty**

**Cake Guy**

**Jane Lene**

**Itachiitachicritic**

**Uzumaki_Ricky**

**Cassa-dee-dee**

**Ziddy2343**

**Hypnotic flames**

**Bright night**

**Okazaki323**

**JAIMOL**

**Robinator115**

**Rose Tiger**

**Dibs_on_fang : Is that how your name is separated? Fang from Maximum Ride, no?**

**Cake guy : Soz… loads of work at the min L**

**Cassa-dee-dee : Epicz XD**

**Ziddy2343 : I just wanted to show that there was a strong bond between them and that is why should could do that**

**I DON'T OWN NARUTO! Just all the theme songs...**

ENTER ERO-SENNIN!

Tsunade was sitting at the breakfast table perfectly calmly eating toast waiting for Naruto to come out of his room. Her head was tilted slightly to the left as she went through the days post. Most of the mail was briefings on illnesses for her or bills that they could afford to pay now thanks to the fact that she worked a bit and didn't gamble as much. It wasn't that she still didn't enjoy a good bit of sake or gambling on the side but she and Shizune had agreed years ago that moving all the time wasn't fair on Naruto to have to run away from her debts all his young life. She sorted them into piles in an absent minded way, bill, bill, bill, briefing, briefing, bill, briefing, briefing, briefing and then something different. It was a hand written address on it so someone knew where they lived. This should have alerted her to the fact it was someone she knew not some random letter. She finished her toast pushing the plate away from her with her elbow. She opened the letter slitting the top open with her nail and tipping the contents onto the table in front of her. The writing was the same as that on the envelope. Strong, self-confident, sure of its self, the writer knew who he/she was and was happy with what they wrote or said. She picked up the folded sheet of paper slowly flicking up the fold so she could read the writing. The letter went something like this:

_Dear Tsunade-chan, (her eyebrows furrowed at this, this person knew her?) _

_My sources, that will remain anonymous of course, informed me a while ago of your whereabouts. I figured this was an oversight on your part because if I can find you so could Kohona, I thought I'd tell you so that you could rectify this situation and move away. (She smirked slightly, she only knew two people who would be able to find her and one wouldn't have written a letter.) You always run so this is what I'm assuming you'll do, sorry if I'm wrong, I have been with you many times. What was more interesting though was the fact that you apparently alone, I dismissed this almost straight away because of Shizune, you would never have left her behind. The problem was that it wasn't just Shizune that was with you, apparently there was a child, a small boy. Not that I am one to judge, of course, but how could you? You said that part of you died when they died. (She looked at the writing it was becoming more apparent to her who was writing to her now, she hadn't checked the name yet. She wasn't the one to skip to the end of the story but she was glad he didn't mention their names even if he had assumed wrong, so badly wrong.) I am coming to pay you a visit, to confirm what my sources tell me, I doubt them, truly I do. Unless the postal service has improved dramatically over the years, I should be with you a couple of days after this letter arrives. I apologise in advance for invading your house but hell, do I really care? No not really but I thought you might appreciate the thought. _

_Yours for, well, as long as you live _

_Jiraiya_

Underneath the written name was his signature that of course didn't stop Tsunade staring at it in horror. She had known who he was before she read the name but she had hoped she was wrong. It wasn't that she didn't like the perverted sannin but he annoyed her in a way no one else could, got under her skin and pissed her right off. The fact he'd assumed that Naruto was her biological son didn't bother her much at all, in her mind he was her son biological had nothing to do with it. He had a right to think badly about her for it though; she was the one who'd walked away from him at Kohona's gate with Shizune, saying she couldn't deal with any of the other sannin right now or anyone who wasn't Shizune for that matter. Maybe it was time to let Naruto meet his godfather even if he hadn't done much for him when Naruto lived in Kohona maybe he could do something now. What surprised her more was the seriousness of his tone, Jiraiya was only serious when something really big was happening. Maybe it was, maybe this was big. The fact he'd been able to find her was big definitely, the apartment was listed under the Shizune's name. Maybe that would have to change.

"SHIZUNE!" She shouted bringing her assistant running into the room. Tsunade shoved the letter under her nose. "Read," Shizune's eyes scanned the letter as Tsunade put her toast plate into the sink.

"He's coming here?"

"That's what it says,"

"Why now?"

"He found us, now"

Shizune blinked, this was something she wasn't expecting, and she hadn't spoken to Jiraiya for years. Her eye's surveyed the kitchen, it was a mess, plates pilled in the sink, the counters were dirty and the table was still covered in mail. Tsunade followed her gaze and nodded,

"Where's Naruto?"

"Down in the woods," there were woods near their apartment and after they had taught Naruto tree climbing he had spent every waking moment he could running up and down trees until he was exhausted to gain only the slightest bit more chakra control. It was him; work hard, for as long you possibly can.

"Go get him for me," Shizune nodded and ran out of the door to go get Naruto. They arrived back soon with Naruto lagging behind he was still getting used to his new weights.

"What is it?" Naruto asked panting. It wasn't far he had just run very quickly.

"Try not to freak out now, but you know there are 3 members of the legendary sannin right?"

"Uhuh, you, psychopath snake guy and that pervy bloke."

"Yup, well, one of them is going to come and visit us. Is that ok with you?"

"NOT THE SNAKE!"

"No," Tsunade grew a little colder at this. "He would never come here, he would receive no welcome."

"So… The perv is coming to visit."

"Yeah…"

"So when is he getting here?"

"Tomorrow,"

"Hmm… ok, Ero-sennin is coming here tomorrow and you didn't wait till dinner to tell me why?"

She gestured to the piles of dishes, grime and general mess that was there apartment. "This is no way for a home to look when you are expecting a guest."

"So, you want me to clean our apartment?"

"Not all of it, you being as lucky as you are get, kitchen, living room and your room. I do my room and the study and Shizune does her room and the bathroom."

Naruto nodded, it seemed fair, each person got their own room and he got the main rooms, Shizune got the bathroom that would take her as long as it took Naruto to do the main rooms and Naruto wasn't even allowed in Tsunade's office so him cleaning that was out of bounds.

-X-Time Skip to when cleaning is over-X-

Naruto wiped his brow and looked at the kitchen that was surprisingly clean after his cleaning. He had learnt to be tidier during his time with Tsunade, his room wasn't messy and his clothes were always tidily put away in his wardrobe. It wasn't really the way he wanted to spend his weekend but as Tsunade said a messy house was not a place to receive a guest. He walked back to his room and pulled out his book on medical ninjutsu and theory and began to do the questions that Shizune had set him. When he had finished he walked back into kitchen to see Shizune finishing up dinner which seemed to be some kind of meat fried with vegetables and gravy.

"How long till it's ready?"

"One sec, you might as well go get Tsunade and then sit."

"Ok," Naruto walked over towards Tsunade's office and knocked the door. "Kaa-san, Nee-san says dinner's ready."

"Be right there," He heard through the door which made the sound kind of muffled. So she could have actually said 'By rigor mortis,' but Naruto didn't think so.

"Hmph," Naruto walked back towards the kitchen and sat down in his chair. They ate and Naruto went to bed and slept dreaming dreams of crazy toad people running around bath houses. When he woke he went and took a shower then he put on his ordinary clothes, he wasn't going to wear anything different for some old friend of Tsunade. There was something he did thought that he didn't normally do, he took his hair out of the pony tail he wore it in. It was easier to wear it out of the when he was training rather have it get in his way because this Ero-sennin was coming he didn't think Tsunade would let him do any training today.

"'Morn'g" Naruto said as he sat down at the breakfast, he wasn't really a morning person.

"Good morning," Shizune said as she plonked some toast in front of Naruto. "Eat, you might not get lunch, it depends on what time Jiraiya-san gets here."

"Where's Kaa-san?"

"Study,"

"Are there lessons today?"

"Until Jiraiya-san gets here."

"Ohjk," Naruto had taken a mouth full of toast but Shizune did her best to decipher that as o.k. He finished breakfast and washed up his plate and wiped the table and the work tops. He wasn't making this place dirty after he cleaned it yesterday.

He walked into the living room to where Shizune had set up his books and texts.

"Right, comprehension today," Naruto groaned he hated comprehension it was just boring in his view. He spent a hour completing comprehension exercises on a story about a shinobi who was out cast by his village and was brought up by a passer-by who found him. It was when he finished his most hated task in the history of the world the person who could have stopped the comprehension decided he was going to turn up after he had finished. Where was the good sense in that?

The door burst open to reveal a ridiculously dressed person doing a stupid dance. Jiraiya was doing his stupid dance about him being a super pervert.

"Nee-san, why is there a crazy in our house?" Naruto whispered staring at him as if he had landed in a space ship from Mars.

"This is Jiraiya," Shizune whispered.

"Jiraiya?" Naruto was aghast he had had an image in his head of a cool dude who was composed and calculated, looking into the heart of the situation before rushing right in. He had long forgotten the perv that he had met at the hot springs before. In truth he had almost forgotten his life in Kohona, he knew that Tsunade wasn't his biological mother but it didn't matter much to him. He knew he was from Kohona but he didn't remember the attack on him or the way they treated him.

"YES! I AM JIRAIYA! THE LEGENDARY SANNIN SUPER PERVERT!"

"KAA-SAN, SOME IDIOT IS HERE PRETENDING TO BE JIRAIYA!

"What do you mean pretending? I am the legendary Jiraiya, don't you remember who I am?"

"I've met you before?"

"Yes,"

"No,"

"YES!"

"Nope never seem you before!"

"YOU HAVE,"

"Haven't,"

"Have,"

"Have,"

"Haven't"

"Got you, I obviously haven't then if you don't even remember it."

This was when Tsunade entered the room to see Naruto crouched on the back of the sofa looking as if he would have killed Jiraiya if you could get away with it scot free, just to rid the pervert from the world.

"Naruto,"

"Yes, Kaa-san?"

"What did I say about sitting on the back of the sofa?"

"Not to,"

"Right,"

"Humph," Naruto jumped off the back of the sofa and landed in front of Jiraiya looking disgruntled from being moved from his spot on the back of the sofa.

"Welcome, Jiraiya."

"Tsunade," no honorifics were used when they were speaking still showed the void that existed between them.

"Shizune, why don't you take Naruto out to the forest for some training, I think that Jiraiya and I need to talk?"

Shizune nodded and headed for the door as Naruto rushed back into his room for the bobble he hadn't put in his hair this morning. "I didn't think you were going to make me train with a guest here," he grumbled as he walked back into the room in the process of tying his hair back.

Tsunade smiled, "I wondered why you hadn't put your hair up this morning, remember Naru-kun 'A weak shinobi,"

"Is a dead shinobi, I know," He sighed, "I guess I'll see you later then, ERO-SENNIN!" He shouted as he bolted towards the front door. He didn't want to get caught by one of the sannin angry.

Shizune stepped back so the door wouldn't hit her and grimaced slightly, "Later, Jiraiya-san." As she to walked out the door after Naruto.

"Jiraiya…" Tsunade started, trying to work out how to begin the explanation. "He's…"

"Tsunade, Naruto, you called him, is he really Minato's son? He is the only person I know called Naruto and he's almost his spitting image for god's sake!"

Tsunade nodded soberly, "He is,"

"Does Sarutobi-sensei, know?"

"Naruto wrote him a letter as soon as he could write explaining the situation and why he was now living with me. You see, Sarutobi never classified me as a missing-nin so Naruto at the moment is under extreme secure training and protection in the eyes of Kohona. Only Sarutobi knows I believe but the villagers celebrated for a week about his death, did they not?"

"That they did, you could have told me Tsunade, I could have helped over the years?"

"Helped who? Me or Naruto?"

"Both,"

"You never helped me before Jiraiya and when Naruto was in Kohona what did you do to help his situation?"

"He never really paid rent, or had to worry about a land lord or having a house?"

"Getting beaten up in the street? Help him much there?"

"There was nothing I could do!"

"There was everything you could have done," she wasn't shouting she was icy cold, hard and her gaze would have frozen any sun.

"I helped all I could!"

"Doing nothing would have been similar,"

"Tsunade…"

"What?"

"Sorry," Tsunade looked at him, for all the shouting she had ever done at Jiraiya he had never once said sorry. Always said he would never do it again and that he apologised but he had never said 'Sorry,'. His treatment of Naruto was horrendous but he was not the worse and he looked ready to die for him right now if it made Naruto feel that little bit better about himself.

"Go make amends then, go watch your godson train."

Jiraiya nodded and began to head towards the door. When he reached it he walked straight through, he poked his head round the door once to ask one simple question, "Does he know, who I am?"

"To him, no, feel free to tell him if you think it is right." He was not forgiven totally that was a thing that would never come but she was not as angry any more, there was no more need for argument it would achieve nothing.

Jiraiya nodded once more before disappearing behind the door through the door and heading towards the forest. It was obvious through the window of the living room so he would be able to find it and Naruto's chakra signature would give away his position.

Tsunade slumped down on the sofa, Jiraiya was a mystery he always had been, the joker yet so serious when need be. Dead last but able to pull off the most amazing things, acting like a complete fool well he slowly learnt everything about you. So loud yet the best spy Kohona had, everything he did contradicted another part of his personality. She sighed as she stared out the window at the forest, watching the red back of Jiraiya disappear into the forest. She would never admit it but she would never understand that man. He would occupy her thoughts for a long time but she would never understand him.

She hoped that he wouldn't disappear out of their lives now, especially if he told Naruto that he was his godfather. Naruto would trust him; want him to be in his life not want him to disappear, just like she had done years ago to Jiraiya.

X-X Skip to Naruto X-X

Naruto was standing on a tree, horizontally of course and without any hands. He was going through the stances of a type of taijutsu that was used by the medics. He figured that he would perfect this style before moving on to own that he created himself or found one that fitted him better. Even Tsunade by now had admitted however much she wished for it, Naruto would never be the greatest medic-nin his control was too hap-hazard. It had improved dramatically of course because of his use of tree climbing in training. He would train on the trees until he ran out of chakra which improved his chakra resources, control and slightly his speed.

"Naruto, that's good now I'm going to start throwing things at you, the weapons are blunted but they will still hurt on impact understand?" Shizune said motioning to the pile of blunted weapons at her feet.

Naruto slid out of the last stance and nodded, "Fire away, literally!" Naruto said smiling at his nee-chan.

She did and quite quickly, not as fast as Anko would have done but faster than an Academy Teacher would. He jumped to avoid three kunai launched at his feet landing back on the tree with a kind of grace that most don't have. He dodged left and right, up and down trying to avoid the projectiles thrown at him. A few hit but not many, this was Naruto loved dodging, getting around, thinking around problems or missiles it was he loved. He felt one coming from behind it was aimed right at the back of his head. He turned quickly and his hand shot up catching the kunai before he imbedded itself in his head.

"No fair nee-chan you didn't say anything about ones from behind."

"I didn't throw that." Shizune said looking around the clearing, pretending to be puzzled. She knew who it was of course she would have been ready to fight otherwise.

"Then who did?"

"Me," Jiraiya stepped out from behind the tree which he was hiding behind.

"Why did you throw it," Naruto glanced down at the kunai, "It isn't even blunted?"

Jiraiya walked towards him, looking at the way he was standing on the tree with just chakra. "You're fast kid, fast and sharp but you're missing something."

"Oh?"

"How much nin-jutsu do you know?" Now, Naruto wasn't one to tell a stranger his jutsu list but Tsunade obviously trusted this person so he decided he'd tell him.

"Umm… Replacement jutsu, Fire Phoenix Jutsu, Water Missile Jutsu, Head Hunter Jutsu, Basic Medical Nin-jutsu, Burning Air Jutsu and Swift Feet."

Jiraiya looked him over, _'He could have graduated the Academy if he had Bushin I wonder why Tsunade hasn't taught him yet,'. _

"What about Bushin? Can you do those and what is Swift Feet?"

"No, I can't seem to get the chakra I need for the Bushins right, I always put too much in and Swift Feet is a jutsu that means I can move very quickly so my taijutsu is more effective."

"Right," Swift Feet, ability to move very fast, it sounded like some primitive form of Hirashin but not as fast and nowhere near as good but the idea was the seemingly the same.

"Try and do a Bushin now," Jiraiya said, Naruto looked at Shizune asking for permission '_I've missed so much' Jiraiya thought 'I promised sensei I'd be there for Naruto and I wasn't, I am truly sorry kid, you deserved so much more than me.' _Naruto obediently performed the Bushin and Jiraiya took a long look at the sick looking figure of Naruto lying on the floor as if died.

"You seemed to use a bit too much chakra try to use a little less."

Naruto tried again and this time managed to get a clone to stand up but it still didn't look the best or much like him at all.

"How much chakra do you think you're using Naruto?"

"The smallest possible," this puzzled Jiraiya he was using only a little bit in his mind but he was still over loading the Bushin with chakra. His reserves must be huge, but with the Kyubi contained in him that was understandable. Jiraiya couldn't think of a way to diminish his chakra supply so that he could control it enough to use Bushin without using chakra limiters and even then the Kyubi chakra might burn them off but if he had too much chakra for normal Bushin what about Kage Bushin. They took the same precision but just more chakra and even though it was a Jounin level technique this 6 year old seemed to have the chakra reserves to pull it off.

"Naruto, this may seem like an absurd idea but try it for me before you turn it down. Try to make the clone substantial, like a living human body."

"How do I do that?"

"A put a bit more chakra than you just did into it but not a lot and try to think of it rather than an image that you are creating another human being, who is identical to you like you are splitting yourself in two and the hand sign changes a little you make a cross rather than just chakra storage."

"I'll try," Naruto concentrated and he concentrated hard he wanted to do it right he wanted this stranger to be impressed that he could do this. He didn't know why but anyone who really tried to help him he felt the need to impress to show them that he could live up to their expectations of him.

There was a slight puff and next to Naruto standing there was a clone of him. Almost a complete clone except for the fact the clone looked a little shorter and weaker but much better than the ordinary Bushin already.

"Now punch it," Naruto looked at him confusion showing in his eyes but he did and it disappeared. He looked at his hand marvelling that it didn't go straight through the clone as if it was an image.

"See that was a Kage Bushin, a Shadow Clone, it can attack and take attacks for you. It is also a good learning tool when you destroy it you gain all of its memories."

"So, say if I wanted to learn a jutsu really quickly I could create a load of these and have them all learn it and then I wouldn't have to?"

"That would work up to a point but you only get their memories not their muscle memory. You could improve you chakra control greatly but jutsu improvement would stop at a point quite soon after the basics." Jiraiya said.

"So how do I make more of them? If I'm going to use them to improve chakra control I'm going to need more than 1."

"You know I said to think of it like you were splitting your body in half, think of it more like you are splitting yourself into 10,20,50 segments instead."

"Right," Naruto made the cross seal and imagined standing next to him not 10 or 50 a whole army of the things; each one standing in a different place in the clearing, on the ground, on branches above him, on the tree trunk next to him.

Puff, puff, puff, puff, there were a huge amount of puffs going on as Naruto looked around astonished at the number he had managed to create. Most of them were of reasonable good quality to none looked as bad as his original Bushin anyway.

"I did it," he muttered quietly to himself. "I pulled it off."

"Well done kid," Jiraiya said standing there also a little shocked that he could create so many so quickly. "You got this down quicker than I've seen anyone do it,"

"Really?"

"Yup,"

"Wow, I'm amazing." Naruto gave his trademark grin that lit up his whole face.

"You are, but don't let it get to your head, someone whose name I'm not going to mention once told me 'That a thousand times nothing is still nothing,' be careful about when you use clones. They are an amazing asset yes but they have half chakra each time of the original."

"Ok, so, brill just watch when to use them because they get weaker the more I create?"

"Yeah that is basically it. You need to keep practising this; the best can do it without hand signs."

Naruto stared down at his hands, "No hand signs," he whispered. "Don't worry Jiraiya-san there is no way I won't be able to do it without hand signs by the next time you visit!" The last part was said louder and it did not go unnoticed to Shizune that he hadn't called Jiraiya Ero-sennin.

"Good lad, I'll leave you here to practise, I need to go into to do some… research."

"Research? What kind? Can I come?"

"No Naruto, I apologise you can't come my associates are very temperamental and they know nothing about you. You could be a spy sent to kill them."

"I'm 6!"

"I've seen it done by younger children." He wasn't lying he was being completely truthful he didn't lie whenever he could help it.

Naruto looked at him with his mouth hanging open, he knew the world could be cruel but to use young children as assassins was a new low he had never heard of before.

"I'll see you at dinner," Shizune said quietly filling the silence.

Jiraiya nodded before jumping into a tree and heading towards the town, he wasn't going to a brothel he was going to find the person who told him those things about Tsunade. All those assumptions they had made of her, all because of what one person said. One piece of information had spiralled out of control and led to Jiraiya almost hating his former team mate. He could never truly hate her but at that moment he almost did. For lying to him, all those years ago, for saying that she couldn't deal with him or anyone other than Shizune, those words had torn him apart, almost, and had made him leave Kohona. He knew when he tracked down this person they would have a job any longer. It wasn't really them he was angry at himself for believing it, there was a time that if Tsunade said jump he would have been in the air before the last letter exited her mouth. He had trusted her completely had he didn't know how he was going to gain her trust again seeing as he had done so much to lose it. He sighed as the forest flashed by quickly and soon blended into town, he didn't know what time it was but he knew if he wasn't back in time for dinner he could not go back at all. He ran faster than he was before, he wasn't going to let them down not again.

**Hay, sorry this took so long. It double the usual word count though so... yeah sorry, I had a load of work to do, time skip next chapter then chapter 10 back to Kohona at the latest! Saiyuxx**


	8. Painting The Hokages

**Thanks To :**

** SageMidnight : Yeah, friends with Kiba definately when they get back and Sasuke, like they are in the canon but maybe try to get Sasuke out of his superioty(sp?) complex.**

**FenrirCrinos : Thanks it is really nice to hear :)**

**dibsonfang : No problem I try to answer everyone who reviews XD**

**silouette : 'The Minority Must Yield To The Majority' Deng Xiaoping. Sorry :( I agree the wave mission would be fun to write but... Sasuke and the curse mark is so central to the cannon that I am going to have to keep it in but maybe decreased, Hinata and the Jyuken... Done (read chapter :P) Soryy it has been a while but here is the next one :L**

**Amourous Grunty : Thanks :**

**Erebus of The Banat : Thank you ^_^**

**I DON'T OWN NARUTO! I shouldn't really own some of the pirsted copies I've got... :(**

**Sorry it took so long but here it is, time skip just incase you miss it... A big one... **

Her alarm clock buzzed, marking the time at 5. She moved her hand to hit it over the head for bringing her the news that it was morning and it was time for her to get up. She was now ten and Hanabi was 5, she threw the covers off herself and braced herself against the competitively cold air than that of her bed. She shivered as she headed towards the door her right that lead to her own bathroom. Hiashi had it installed for her a couple of years ago. She stood under the warm water of the shower letting the water relax her muscles if only slightly.

She didn't spend long in the shower, only about 5 minutes. She dressed in a black t-shirt that clung to her figure that was short sleeved. Growing up around Anko had changed her very much, not that she knew it of course. There was ninja mesh from her upper arm to her wrists; she wore weights around her arms, legs and two belts around her waist. The weights on her legs you couldn't see they were hidden under a pair of baggy cargo pants that she wore just for ease of movement. The ones on her wrists looked a bit like bracelets to those who didn't know what they really were, like Sakura and Ino. She wore two belts that crossed over her stomach nobody ever thought much of it thinking it was a fashion statement, she was glad of that. She wore a black trench coat over all this, it looked a bit dirty and dishevelled; she'd had it for a while now and she wore it every day. It had been a gift from Anko about a year ago; it was the first gift she'd gotten since her mother had died that hadn't been a piece if training equipment. Her father had gotten, kunai sets, texts books, sure but nothing really for pleasure. Anko's present was always a weight suite and maybe if she was lucky something else, like the trench coat for example.

She pulled on her shoes and headed towards Hanabi's room, she opened the door to see the plain room. It was disheartening to see who bare the room was really; all pictures had been taken down years ago. Hinata had been the one to take them down though and she didn't regret that decision, she had saved them and hidden them where nobody who would have destroyed them because they showed weakness and childishness. She had comforted Hanabi after she had taken them down and explained why she had to do it but it was still hard to look at the blanch walls of the room. She thought about when she was 4 and how she had cried when an unknown branch member had taken down all her pictures and burned them, not maliciously, just following orders.

"Hanabi, wake up." She shook her little sister awake, "It is 5 my darling. You need to get dressed."

"Hai," Hanabi still sounded a little sleepy as she stretched and looked up at her sister. Hanabi hadn't started the academy yet but she would go along to the training ground with Hinata now, she had been doing so for a year. Since her fourth birthday to be exact, on your 4th birthday it was traditional in the Hyuga clan main branch to begin training. Hinata treated her sister kinder than she had been but she was still expected to be able to get herself ready.

"I'll see you there, Hana." She had been cutting her name short for years it was something Hanabi herself had come up with, when she was learning to talk she couldn't saw Hinata so she would say Hina, so from that time on Hinata had been Hina in Hanabi's eyes and Hanabi Hana in Hinata's. It was just a nice nickname really, rather than saying sister or using honorifics. Some would say it was disrespectful but only if they didn't know the story then most would say it was cute, some may still think badly of them but they tried to ignore that type of people.

Hinata left her sister to her own devises and went to the training ground she had been going to for years. She knew Hanabi would be along in a minute and that was good, she could train with Hinata until the academy opened for the morning then Hanabi could train by herself until Anko came to meet her at about 4. Hinata would take care of shopping and other house hold jobs from 3 (when the academy kicked out) till 4 then she would go back to the training ground until 6. Anko wasn't always there but Hanabi wasn't an idiot she could train herself if Anko was on mission just like Hinata had done all those years ago.

Hinata, truth fully could have graduated the academy years ago but she bided her time learning all she could about the people around her, she hid her abilities pretending to be the average student. Her father was disappointed of course, mediocre marks were not expected or well received among the Hyuga. She had her reasons though, she took the same classes again and again, and she asked different questions every time the same topic came around. She could have aced all her test but she wanted the background knowledge. When she graduated the academy she would be put on a team and maybe sent into active combat, she was going to be the best she could be at that time even if that meant not being respected by her father. During kunai or shuriken practise she wouldn't throw them at the centre of the target, she would aim at the corners, or some far off tree, or a fold in the paper. She would hit everything she aimed at, she figured that as long as she knew what she was aiming for it didn't matter what it was. Anko had agreed with her decision, you were legally an adult when you became genin, it is best to gain knowledge when you are still young it is easier. Also you just had to look at people who had advanced through the ranks, too young and too quickly, Itachi had murdered his own clan, Orochimaru went crazy and started experimenting on people, Kakashi blamed himself for letting his team die and lived with that sorrow every day, it made it very hard for him to form bonds with anybody. Though some suffered more than others but nothing good in Anko's opinion could come of becoming genin before 12 at least when you gained some emotional understanding about the missions you were asked to perform and why they were necessary.

Hinata began to warm up; she had run 100 laps around the training field by the time Hanabi got there. Hinata was breathing deeply but not hard, the weights were going to have to go up a class soon, she could almost act normally in these now. It was so tempting in the academy to beat the crap out of that Uchiha; she probably could even with her weights on though it would tire her out. Without them she would be able to walk over him, even without using the Dragon style. The Dragon style had become her trump card, something she would only use if the going was getting really though. If the Gentle Fist wasn't working and she couldn't see any other way, she had changed the Dragon style so it fitted her better. She used it like her own Gentle Fist, extending chakra from part of her body that was attacking the enemy. She jogged over to Hanabi, who was dressed and fully awake.

"Do you want to warm up Hana and then we'll spar for a bit but without chakra?"

"Yeah, ok," Hanabi set off around the field. Hinata smiled as she remembered the last time they had spared with chakra before school that was the first and only time Hinata had fallen asleep in school. They had worked really hard and most of the others chakra points had been sealed for the day. They now left that kind of sparring until after school, when they could collapse in bed as soon as they had finished.

Hinata began shifting trough the stances of the Dragon style faster than many people could see. She seemed to be flashing, she was so used to the stances by now that she didn't think any more, she just did the actions, unthinking like breathing.

"Done," Hinata turned to regard her sister. She wasn't breathing hard or deeply but she had run just as far and as fast as Hinata. _'I'm going to start her on weight soon' Hinata thought 'She is no longer getting tired so quickly.' _

"Ok, let's get going then."

They both settled into their own stances. Hanabi in the Gentle Fist stance it was better suited to her than the Dragon style and the moves came to her naturally like a proper style should. Hinata was also fighting in the Gentle Fist style, she did her very best to improve this style to the standard of the Dragon style. She would always beat Hanabi at this point using either style but she knew as Hanabi got older and better at the Gentle Fist style she would resort more and more to her other style. It was her trump card but she didn't want to be dependent on it and would spar using the Gentle Fist. When she sparred with Anko she would use the Dragon style or she would have got her arse kicked from here to Timbuktu.

They sparred for a good hour before Hinata left Hanabi to train and went back to the house to get some food. She grabbed herself a slice of toast and her bag before heading out the door towards the academy for another day of learning and pretending. She didn't worry about Hanabi being in the training field alone. She had never noticed it when she was young but Hiashi always sent out a branch member to make sure they were alright. So he worried about them so what, he could have come and made sure they were alright if he was that worried; though she knew that if he had done that she would have resented even more than she did already.

She turned up the road that leads to the academy to see Ino and Sakura racing each other. She smirked at them for a moment before sprinting off towards the academy. They would never know she had won that race but she would. She knew that she a good shinobi, her precious people knew (Anko + Hanabi) she was a good ninja and that was all that mattered to her.

She dumped her bag on the desk that was right at the back. She liked it in that corner, she had friends of course Shikamaru, Choji, Kiba and Shino, but in that corner it could feel to her as if she was in her own little world.

She was first in the classroom it looked a bit empty without anybody else in it. Kiba wasn't here being loud or Shikamaru lazing about trying not to do anything, even though Hinata knew he could beat all the class if he really wanted to. If she thought about it she would say that there was something missing from her class but she never thought so she never said. They began seeping in, breaking her train of thought with noise. Ino and Sakura out of breath from running, Hinata looked at them, it hadn't been that far and they can't have been running that fast if she got here that much quicker than them. She could never beat Anko if they raced and she knew Anko wasn't the fastest person she was going to meet. Thinking about she compared everything she did with Anko, trying to measure up to her fighting ability. The one thing she could say she'd done was master the Dragon style better than her, to Anko it didn't come naturally to Hinata it did. Hinata had made it her own, it wasn't perfect but it was brilliant, truly brilliant. To create something that fitter to you like a second skin, was something she thought everyone would consider truly brilliant.

"Hinata,"

"Shikamaru," Shikamaru knew that Hinata was holding back. He was the only one; he had caught her training one time while he was watching some clouds. It was quite difficult to explain why; to the cleverest person she had ever met, why she was suddenly so brilliant at taijutsu.

"How are you?"

"Tired, my mum made me get up and train, troublesome." Hinata sighed; he could be such a brilliant ninja if he put a little more effort in. Not that he wasn't a great tactician already but that was something he enjoyed. If he were to train his taijutsu a little more, he could beat probably anyone.

"Oh," She looked at him standing behind the chair, "You gunna sit down or stand there like a lemon all day?"

"Hmph," He pulled up the chair next to her and sat down.

"Don't you go all Sasuke on me," she warned smiling at him. It was an on-going joke in her group of friends that if they ever became as gloomy and horrible as Sasuke was they would get a resounding slap across the face.

"You wouldn't dare."

"I don't have to if you don't go all Sasuke on me."

"Fine, fine."

"RIGHT!" Iruka stood at the front of the class and shouted at them. Hinata hadn't noticed that the rest of the class had got there. She had been too busy talking to Shikamaru, who had promptly fallen asleep.

"Today class we are looking at History of all the Ninja Villages." Hinata sighed it was at points like this she regretted holding herself back. She had studied this subject so many times.

X-X Skip to end of the day X-X

"Cya tomorrow guys." Hinata shouted as she left the academy buildings. Her school bag felt much heavier than normal, maybe it was just her outlook today. She had been very annoyed, her strategy to gain knowledge was a good one but sometimes it was just tiresome. She had spent last lesson thinking up different strategies to get Iruka covered in paint but not move a muscle and use only chakra. Not that she would ever do that of course. She would read more books tonight to make up for the lesson.

She walked quickly towards Kohona's shopping district; her bag slung over one shoulder. Her hair was longer than it used to be hanging at her waist, loose and swinging, she put it up when she was training but she thought it looked nicer down. She walked along Main Street singing quietly to herself, she didn't get much time for fun; the only time she got for herself was when she was shopping.

She quickly brought supplies for the week in the local grocery shop before heading over to the shinobi store for new weights for her and ones for Hanabi. She bought herself the next class up which happened to be about 1,000 pounds (if you added up the weight if each part) worth of weight spread over her whole body. Hanabi had only 100 pounds you have to take this kind of thing slowly or it would be impossible to practise. Hinata started to head home so she could put the groceries away before changing her weights and giving Hanabi her ones.

She glanced at the self that she was walking past sitting there untouched and almost never bought sat tins of paint. She looked at the puzzled why would paint be in a shinobi shop? It must be for writing messages to your team mates on trees and things she reasoned. She didn't have any in her cupboard at home which she prided herself in having most shinobi equipment so she picked a can of blue and green, one to stand out if it was a warning and one to blend in for messages and stuff. She went to pay for them, wondering if she would ever need them.

She began heading home again and finally got there without getting distracted and buying anything else. She spent half an hour putting the food away in the cupboards and preparing a pasta sauce that they would eat when the finished training. Hinata picked up the bag containing the shinobi equipment and headed out to meet Hanabi.

The streets had cleared slightly from when she was out earlier; civilians had started to head home from their jobs. Shinobi worked much longer hours than the general populace but then they also got paid more. She had never really noticed before, probably because she had walked the street so many times before she just stopped seeing what she was walking past, was that the Hokage monument loomed over the street she was walking down. The huge shadow the greatest shinobi created as they were enshrined in stone.

She stopped for a moment to look at the faces of the people she respected most after maybe Anko-san. The 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Hokages their faces seemed so cold almost emotionless, no colour, no expression but the most brilliant leaders this village had ever had. They deserved more than that, so much more. She put the bag of training equipment down and checked her purse, she had enough money, just enough. She put her purse back in her pocket, picked up her bag and headed back to the shinobi shop (the only one that was still open). She bought every colour paint the shop had and headed towards the Hokage monument. She stood at the top of the Hokage monument with the paint hanging off her arms.

"Sorry Hanabi, I may be late," She said quietly to herself. "Sorry Father, this needed to be done, the greatest and most honoured people in Kohona's history can't stay expressionless and unfeeling because in life they were the greatest leaders we ever had."

Then she stepped over the side using chakra to step over the side of the cliff. She had 2 hours before Hanabi started to worry, she was going to make every minute count.

**SORRY FOR LATEZ!**

**Echhh... Now that is out of the way... :')**

**? What you think? She hasn't defased them just made them look more alive, she really respects the Hokages so this was her way of thanking them. Oh I have found this amazing story called 'Never Cut Twice' the pairing is NaruTem but it is hilarious and Naruto is a missing-nin. Give it a go it is truely brilliant.**

**Saiyuxx**


	9. Genin Exam

**Thanks To :ruto-kun-nata-chan**

**tedlay**

**Uzumaki Ricky**

**SageMidnight**

**hypnotic flames**

**evil-x-love**

**Erebus The Bandit**

**Kii-san**

**Cake guy**

**Rose Tiger**

**Writer of the Void**

**Riku Uzumaki : KH, cool name :)**

**Cassa-di-di Loves NaruHina : I don't think so he is more mature than that now**

**Okazki323 : So do I!**

**ferduran : Don't know... yet - She won't remember him at all they were very young at the time... hmmm...**

**I DON'T OWN NARUTO IN ANY SHAPE OR FORM! I own Shikamaru though...**

**SORRY IT IS SO LATE!**

Hinata awoke, she no longer bothered to set an alarm she woke up at 5 every morning anyway, the time had been ingrained into her body clock. She slipped out of bed quietly before turning around and making it. She straightened out the creases before heading towards the bathroom. Her bed would always be made and her room always tidy there was no need to give her father a reason to scold her again, Neji had better grades than her at the academy gave him reason enough as it was. She shook off her clothes before stepping into the shower. She no longer ran the water hot, she wouldn't be able to on mission so she figured that she better get used to the cold water. She got out of the shower, dried off and walked back into her bedroom where she got dressed. Her attire was the same as it was before but she had got a new trench coat, Anko had gotten it for her on her 12th birthday, her weights had obviously gone up classes in the time she was now walking around 40kg in weights on, that was matching her own body weight.

Hinata head out to the training ground Hanabi would join her when she was dressed, she was 7 now she could get dressed by herself. She began to warm up 100 laps around the practise field as always before Hanabi got there. Her weights were dragging her down she had only changed them about a week ago. She began to shift through the more complicated of the Jyuuken her father hadn't taught her per say more like left the scroll by her bed on morning for her to learn from. This was praise in a way and it made her wonder why he didn't try to force her to pass the Genin Exam before she was 12. He obviously knew how powerful she was because of the branch member he always sent to make sure they were alright but he never tried to force her into graduating. Just told her off severely because Neji had better test scores than her. Maybe it was the branch clan was doing better than the main she didn't know, but he was really angry about it.

Hanabi joined her when she had finished that and they sparred for a bit before she headed back to the house for breakfast then to school. Her school bag wasn't really heavy today she though as she headed towards the road that headed to the academy. She didn't need any books today, today was test day the day of the Genin Exam, she was now 12, today she was going to graduation.

She slumped down at her seat in the back like she always did, watching as her class mated filed in, some holding notes and looking tired having stayed up all night revising, others walking in head held high confident that they were going to pass and yes most of them were but how many were going to survive their first C/B Rank mission? Too many, she reasoned far too many.

Sasuke came in with his head held a little higher than normal, that stick maybe a little more up his ass. She sighed, she had done her best to be friends with the boy but all he did was push people away with a cold façade and a mean glare. There was no doubting that he was a good shinobi for his age but he wasn't the best, if he had people that he wanted to protect he would be even stronger than he already is. Maybe when he got over his avenger stage then he would be stronger.

Sakura and Ino entered both breathing heavily, they had obviously been racing AGAIN. They obviously thought it was fun to race each other down main street everyday and come into class shouting about who's foot got over the door jam first, it got really annoying. There was no denying that Sakura was clever, sure that was obvious but she was obsessed with Sasuke, if she took him of the pedestal she had put him on and did some real training she would seriously be a strong ninja.

By the time everyone had got there Hinata had been there half a hour. She thought it was good form to turn up early especially on test day. She had Shikamaru sitting next to her followed in order by Choji, Kiba with Akumaru and then Shino. They were her friends the ones that she could rely on to stand by her side if things went tits up.

Iruka walked into the room and broke her thoughts by explaining the test to them, not that she hadn't heard it before. "The Genin Exam is split into 4 parts, a written test, taijutsu, nin-jutsu and genjutsu. Each test is out of 10 and the pass mark on each is 5 but you do not have to pass all tests to graduate just have a score at the end of above 20 and you pass. The person who has the highest score will be awarded the No.1 Rookie Award."

Hinata smiled to herself it seemed easy enough, the written test would be simple as would the nin-jutsu and genjutsu, the taijutsu would just be fun. She knew that she could beat anyone in this class and the only person who would even put up a bit of a fight was Sasuke so she wanted to be paired with him.

Iruka finished explaining the test, not that Hinata had been listening to the end. He began to hand out test papers laying one face down on each desk, Hinata picked up her pen and waited for him to say they could begin.

"You may began, you have 1 hour remember to try and answer every question and if you have finished then check over your work. Do not speak or your test will be taken off you and you will be given 0 for this part of the exam. Do your best."

Hinata turned over her paper and glanced down at the paper the questions were easy, ranging from basic Pythagoras to the History of Konohagakure. Let's just say that this paper was not going to take her an hour.

Half a hour later Hinata sat at her desk playing with her pen she had finished the test and had checked 3 times like Iruka-sensei had instructed. She glanced around the room, Shikamaru was sleeping as was to be expected but he had completed the paper which was a plus, he would have also checked it multiple times to check for mistakes, it was something his mother had drilled into him. Kiba was going fine but seemingly quite slowly, Choji was nearing completion and would be checking it soon he didn't seem to worried. Shino was just checking over his work going through every question slowly making sure he had got it right. Sasuke was leaning back in his chair, obviously relaxing maybe he just thought he was so brilliant he didn't need to check his work. Sakura was staring at her paper, she would have finished but she would keep checking it until the time was up, she needed to get a lot of marks in this test to make up for her taijutsu mark. Hinata sighed, maybe Shikamaru had the best idea with the sleeping thing, she put her head down on the desk and started to day dream.

"STOP! Put your pens down and turn over paper again. Sakura, STOP! Good thank you." Hinata woke up with a jolt she hadn't meant to fall asleep she just did, Shikamaru was still asleep next to her. She shook him awake gently, "Shika-kun, wake up. The written test is over."

He woke up looking groggy as Iruka walked up the isle in between the lines of desks collecting the papers.

"Thanks," he muttered under his breath.

"Na,"

"Right, the next test will be taijutsu so could you please follow me to the dojo." Iruka said from the front of the room as he quickly shuffled the papers into a pile. He walked out the door as the class followed him towards the Academy's dojo.

"How did it go guys?" Hinata asked as they walked down the corridor.

"Fine," came the unanimous answer. She gave a small smile they would say that even if they thought they had got every question wrong so that it didn't worry her.

They all filed into the dojo in a neat line like they had been taught as Iruka explained the rules of the test. "You will be put into pairs and asked to spar, even if you don't win you can get full marks from style and technique if you do that perfectly. No chakra is to be used at any time and any use of chakra will see you disqualified and given 0 for this portion of the test. All the spars will start and finish at the same time so you can't watch your friends fights, sorry."

The class nodded and listened for their pair, "Hinata and Sasuke, Sakura and Choji, Ino and Kiba, Shino and Shikamaru." He read out from the list in front of him.

Hinata smiled this was going to be fun at least. Choji and Kiba were going to have easy fights and would trounce their opponents. Shino and Shikamaru, now that would be an interesting fight, Shino had better taijutsu so he would probably get more marks but Shikamaru would probably win.

"Take your positions in the circles here please." Hinata nodded and headed over to the circle that Sasuke was standing next to her.

"Ready?" She settled into her fighting position for the Gentle Fist.

"As ready as I will ever be," she answered her opponent. "Scared?" She asked in return.

"Of you never, you are beneath me."

"Well that's nice." Hinata commented dryly.

"BEGIN!" Iruka shouted interrupting their conversation.

Sasuke launched a reverse punch at her abdomen that she blocked while sliding forward and knife handing him with her free hand to his stomach. It hit but not with full power as he managed to turn slightly before it hit. She slid back before launching a jumping front kick at him. He was still regaining his balance from the earlier attack and got kicked in the shoulder sending him to the floor. She jumped back and breathed in, the weights were still new and were dragging her down a bit. That is why Sasuke was able to move out of the way. He launched a snap punch off his front hand trying to go straight to her face. She ducked and reverse punched him in the stomach winding him but not knocking him down. He brought his elbow down between her shoulder blades trying to knock her down, face first. It hit but it didn't knock her down, she grabbed his arm and twisted it into a lock, forcing him down onto one knee.

"Surrender or I'll break your arm." She said looking down at him. He gritted his teeth and ground them together in frustration not saying anything.

"O.K if that is your choice." Hinata went to brake his arm. This was a spar after all, all out for the best marks.

"RIGHT, EVERYBODY STOP!" Iruka shouted as he looked up from his clipboard. "THAT IS ENOUGH!"

Hinata huffed and let Sasuke's arm drop, as he climbed to his feet she said "Beneath you am I?"

He shook his arm out, it was probably a bit dead. He looked over his shoulder at her, "How did you get that strong? How? Tell me!"

She sighed, "How many people in this world do you want to protect Sasuke? Other than yourself I mean."

He though for a moment but couldn't come up with anybody.

"That is what makes me strong, the fact that I fight to protect not destroy, that I have people I need to be strong for, that is what makes me strong. Fighting for other people and not just myself makes me strong."

Sasuke looked at her as if she was talking gibberish and stalked off to go and sulk in his emo corner.

"HINATA!" Iruka shouted.

"Sorry sir." She said as she went to rejoin the rest of the class.

"Right everyone, back to class."

She gave the thumbs up to her friends as they all walked back to the class room.

"O.K?"

"Fine." Always fine, she though. Everything is always fine to them.

They all entered the class room and went back to their allocated seats as Iruka explained the next test to them.

"The next part of the test is a combination of the genjutsu part and the nin-jutsu part. You will be called one by one into the room across the corridor and asked to perform one genjutsu and one nin-jutsu. You will be called out in alphabetical order. You will be marked on your chakra control and the level to which you can perform the jutsu requested of you. You will all be asked to perform the same jutsu."

Hinata smiled and leaned back on her chair the test was almost over. She watched as her class mates filed out of the room until it was her turn.

"Hyuga, Hinata."

She got up and walked out of the room followed by good lucks from her friends that were still in the room. She crossed the corridor and entered the bare room which was their testing room.

"Sensei,"

"Right, Hinata, I want you to perform the genjutsu we learned that makes it seem like cherry blossoms are falling and Bushin No Jutsu, please."

Hinata nodded and stepped into the middle of the room and began the preparations for the Cherry Blossom Jutsu. It didn't take a lot of chakra but it did take concentration. She performed the jutsu making it seem like cherry blossoms were falling and hitting things on the way down such as Iruka-sensei's head for example.

"That was good now dispel it."

Hinata nodded and dispelled the jutsu and made the hand sign for Bushin No Jutsu. "Hai!" She said quietly as 10 clones appeared around her. All of them were healthy and would be able be used as a proficient distraction.

"Good, good, very good. Now you can dispel them."

She dispelled them and waited patiently as he added up the scores for the test on his clipboard. "Well done Hinata you passed with an amazing mark of 29."

"If you don't mind me asking what did I drop a mark on sir?"

"You threatened to break Sasuke's arm, he is a comrade of yours, you should ensure that no harm should come to him or your other comrades, no matter how much they irritate you. The test was only a spar not a life and death match."

She thought about it and in retrospect the move did seem a little unnecessary, she nodded. "Thank you, sir." She walked forward to the desk to and picked up her head band that was sitting on the desk in front of her sensei.

"Now go and sit in room C16 and wait until everyone has taken there test and I will announce the Rookie of the Year Award."

She nodded and walked down the corridor to C16 and sat down at the back. Congratulating Shino and Choji as she did so as they had also passed.

She sat and watch others come through the door some disappointed that they hadn't passed and some elated that they had. Shikamaru and Kiba also passed which made Hinata smile, especially when Shika had slouched in and everyone but her had assumed that he had failed. Soon Iruka came into the room holding that trusty clipboard of his.

"Well done everyone, you all did your best I am sure. I am very happy to announce that the Rookie of the Year is… Hyuga Hinata! Well done Hinata." Hinata beamed and Sasuke glared at the desk as if that held the answer to his problem.

"Everyone who has passed must be here at 11 tomorrow to get assigned their sensei and team, all those who didn't class begins as normal again in 1 month at the start of the new term. You are ninja now, adults, you have responsibilities, you must carry them out as best you can as shinobi of Kohona." He looked at them one at a time right in the eye.

"So, for the last time for some of you, class dismissed."

` Hinata walked out of the room with a stupidly happy smile on her face. Rookie of the Year, at least her father couldn't scold her tonight.

**Finally up... So sorry it was so late, my internet was down and life just got in the way. I'm thinking of bringing Naruto back to Konoha for the next chapter so that should be good... Easter brake now so they next one shouldn't take so long... Soz again :(**

**Saiyuxx**


	10. Hero Come Back

**Hayo! Another Chapter :) **

**I DON'T OWN NARUTO! Just the stuff I write but not the charecters and places :(**

**Thanks To : Rose Tiger **

**Okazaki323 **

**Evillevi**

**Aki666**

**Amorous Grunty**

**Cassa-di-di Loves NaruHina : Has been change thanks for pointing it out **

**Slatedfox : No not dropped :P well it is the Chunnin Exams he's going back for so is going to be able to show off a bit. Cool name btw XD**

Naruto sat up and yawned, stretching his arms out to both sides. He raised himself slowly up to a sitting position, looking around. His walls were covered in jutsu theory and taijutsu techniques, one side of his room was dedicated to jutsu or techniques that he had mastered and another to the ones that he was still working on. Yeah, it may have seemed a little untidy to someone just glancing into the room but it was a very organized system.

He swung his legs over the side of his bed and got up, scanning the still in progress side of the room. "Chakra Scalpel, Wind Blades and that stupid thing with the rubber ball Ero-sennin has got me doing." Ero-sennin had long stopped being an insult and started being a term of endearment. Jiraiya had just started to teach Naruto Rasengan, he hadn't taught him earlier due to the fact that he was teaching him basic sealing and that had been a completely new concept to grasp. Not that Naruto valued the technique much at the moment due to the fact he was only on the second stage and it still seemed like Jiraiya was trying to make him look stupid.

He turned slowly made his bed and placed a stupid novelty hat that Shizune had bought him for his last birthday that he wore to bed on his pillow. He padded down the hallway to the bathroom; he discarded his pyjamas into the washing basket and stepped into the shower. He had grown taller over the years due to not having a diet that consisted solely of ramen. He kept his hair just over shoulder length, he figured any longer would get in his way. He ran his hands through his hair trying to dislodge the dirt that hand made itself home there. He stepped out of the shower and made sure the towel was tied securely around his waist. He had gotten to the age where accidentally dropping his towel in front of Tsunade or Shizune would be the height of embarrassment so he did his best to avoid it if he could.

He walked back to his room, closing the door behind him with his foot; he dried of quickly and got dressed. He was not wearing a weight suite anymore and rather opted for ankle and wrist weights. The coverings for them were black and he wore black cargo pants with ninja mesh underneath and ninja sandals. He still wore a trench coat but this one was a grubby white rather than pure white, kind of like a creamy colour. His t-shirt was a pure black short sleeved number that covered the ninja mesh underneath. If you looked at him from a distance the whitish trench seemed a stark contrast from the rest of his clothes but then his hair wasn't dark either and neither were his eyes. He rubbed his hair dry with the towel before putting it onto the radiator for it to dry.

He walked back down the corridor and went into to the kitchen to see his Kaa-san consulting some papers and Shizune fixing quite a big breakfast for them all.

"Ohaio Na-kun."

"Morning Nee-san, how are you this fine and wonderful morning?"

She tilted her head sideways as she continued making breakfast, "alright. You?"

"Good thanks."

He plonked himself on a chair next to his Kaa-san clearing a little space around where he was sitting to put his elbows on. He leaned his head on his hands and looked up at his Kaa-san.

"What ya doing?"

"Just trying to get some things sorted before breakfast so there is less to do later."

"Oh, ok." Naruto thought that was a kind of stupid answer; his Kaa-san was usually up to something really interesting. He turned his gaze over to the papers that littered the table they seemed to be a lot of maps of the Fire Country.

Shizune flipped an egg over in the pan and smiled at them, "Breakfast in like 2 minuets guys you might want to clear the table."

"Humph," Tsunade said before starting to collect the papers in some sort of order. Shizune finished cooking and brought over the plates of food.

"Tuck in."

"You can count on that." Even though Naruto's table manners had improved he would still finish everything on his plate without fail. Shizune smiled as he shovelled food into his mouth with relish. They were still eating when the doorbell rang, Naruto got up. "I'm closest don't worry about it."

They nodded it was probably only be the postman, Jiraiya had gotten a key years ago. As Naruto walked down the hall way to the door he tried to smile just in case it wasn't the post man and it was one of their neighbours complaining that he'd jumped out his bedroom window again and might have looked into their window on his way down. He would say that he had never done such a thing, but then with Tsunade death glaring at you who wouldn't? To his relief it was only the postman brining the letters. "Thank you," Naruto said before heading back to the breakfast table.

He sat back down on his chair and sifted through the mail to see if there was anything interesting there. Nothing caught his attention until he saw one that was written by hand and was not Ero-sennin's handwriting, they got letters from him all the time suggesting new training methods or telling them when he was coming. He put the uninteresting bills and briefings for his Kaa-san on one pile and passed the handwritten letter to his right.

"Didn't know who this was from so I figured you'd want to have a look at it." He said before continuing to eat his breakfast.

Tsunade put down her knife and fork for a moment to have a look at the letter; it was one that she knew would be coming sooner or later. It surprised her that Naruto didn't recognize the handwriting this wasn't the first time they'd received a letter from this sender but she supposed he had been quite young at the time. She slit open the top of the letter with Shizune's knife that she hadn't used yet, thanking her quietly before returning it. She tipped the letter upside down and its contents fell onto the table. She picked up the letter and began to read.

_Dear Tsunade,_

_How have you been doing lately it has been a while since we've been in contact? I am writing to tell you that the annual Chunnin Exams going to commence shortly. They will take place this year in Kohonagakure and will start in about a m__onth. Naruto must be about 12 now and seeing as he has been trained by you his whole life I was thinking that this was an appropriate time to maybe bring him home. I know he will not feel that the Leaf is his home but it is yours and Shizune's and I think that it is time that he meets his comrades of the Leaf. I suppose though that it is your decision whether or not he enters the exams but if you decide that he is not ready for the exams you need to return now, that part is not your decision. _

_Yours truly,_

_Sarutobi_

Tsunade smiled she wasn't offended by the letter he was the Hokage and she had been planning on taking Naruto back for these Chunnin Exams anyway, he was very ready to have that rank. She passed the letter to her right to Shizune who scanned it before placing back on the table.

"What?" Naruto asked looking up from his food. "Why are you smiling?"

"Naruto, remember we were doing politics between the allied nations?" Shizune asked.

"Yup," he replied.

"What was one of the large factors in strengthening bonds between ninja below Jounin level?"

"The annual Chunnin Exams?"

"That's right dear."

Tsunade took over now, picking up the letter. "This is from Sarutobi, telling us when and where the next Chunnin Exams will be held."

Naruto had finished by now but had not got up to put his plate in the sink. "O.K I get that bit, but why is he telling us?"

"Naruto, you are not thick, think about it."

He thought back to the lesson Shizune had given him, 12 was the average age to first take part in the Chunnin Exam, which was his age now and they were both smirking at him which meant they were up to something.

"You don't mean…?"

"For you to take the Chunnin Exams? Yes we do."

"But I'm not even a Genin."

"When we get to Kohona the Hokage can give you that rank, he agrees that it is time for you take the Exams."

Naruto got up from the table, nodding his head as he put his plate in the sink. "So where are they this year?" Hoping that it was Suna, he wanted to see Gaara and his siblings again. They had visited Suna briefly to try to help Gaara sleep. Maybe even if it wasn't in Suna they would be participating in the exams if they hadn't already, they were all very talented.

Tsunade looked at him puzzled she had just used the words Kohona and Hokage in one sentence and he hadn't noticed that was unlike him. "Kohona, I did just say that."

"Kohona," Naruto repeated slowly, he honestly hadn't heard her say it before, maybe he was blocking it out or something. "I'm going home," he whispered to himself. He knew deep in his heart that Kohona wasn't his home; the building he was standing in now was home. Where his Kaa-san and Nee-san were, where he had been happy. All he could remember about Kohona was that people hated him and threw things at him. Almost all the things he remembered about Kohona were negative a few things were happy, old man Hokage smiling at him, Ero-sennin turning up randomly when he didn't know him properly and making a complete fool of himself and some random girl whose name he couldn't even remember trying to defend him from the villagers. He sighed and leaned against the counter, tipping his head back slowly. He knew this day would come sooner or later, they were shinobi and shinobi were allied to a village, this village would give them orders that they had follow. They were just the soldiers of this world, very powerful soldiers but soldiers none the less.

"We'll never come back here will we?"

Tsunade shook her head.

"No Naruto when we leave we will never come here."

"When do the exams start?"

Tsunade answered the veiled question, "We leave as soon as we can get everything packed." She said gesturing to all the things in the room.

"How long will it take to get to Kohona from here?"

"About a week if we travel every day that week and go quite slowly."

Naruto bit down on his bottom lip, "So that's what the maps were for."

"Yeah, I was just refreshing my memory of the route."

Shizune stood up and put her plate in the sink and gave it a rinse, she sighed when she looked at Naruto. He had been given a stable home life, always living in the same place, this would probably be a shock to him, and he had mostly forgotten all things about Kohona. It had just been sprung upon him, but it wasn't as if that he expected to live here forever.

"So we better start packing," Naruto said giving a small smirk. Which surprised both Tsunade and Shizune; this seemed to be a good sign that he was ok with the move and understood why it was taking place.

A week later Naruto looked at a bare room and boxes that were piled up. They contained all his stuff that he wasn't carrying to Kohona with, clothes for the week, a couple of rubber balls and some other training scrolls, he travelled rather light. He walked out of his room and into the hallway; everything seemed just a little barer, little less homely, a little less like this was where he wanted to be. He jumped out of the window of the main room, making sure to have his back to any of the windows on his way down. Shizune was loading boxes onto a cart which was being pulled by a mule, it had been decided that Shizune would take their stuff on the mule and Naruto and Tsunade would go ahead and enter him in the Chunnin Exams etc.

"Nee-san my room is completely packed up."

Shizune looked up from where she was working. "That's good Naruto your room was the last to be finished."

Naruto nodded, "Why don't you go and see if Tsunade is ready to leave? The sooner you go the better, ne?" Shizune asked.

"I'll go and have a look," Naruto walked around the building and began to run up the stairs. It was good training if nothing else, he could have body flickered sure but he figured he needed to keep his fitness up also and it wasn't that far. He walked through his front door and headed to his bedroom to pick up his bag and slung it onto his back. He then went to find his Kaa-san figuring that she would be in her study, which is where she was looking at the boxes that were all her files and things.

"Kaa-san," he said to her back. "Are you ready to leave now?"

Tsunade turned to look at him with his bag already on his back ready to leave; he was really a shinobi to be proud of. She picked up the bag that was at her feet that contained clothes, food, a tent etc. for the journey and slung it onto her back.

"Yeah," she said as they headed towards the front door.

Naruto glanced around the bare apartment and purposefully shut the door behind him, hard.

They ran through the whole day not stopping to eat or anything using the journey as some kind of training. Though to call it training was akin to something Gai or Lee would do. They stopped for the night in a small clearing, Naruto put up the small tent while Tsunade got a small fire going. When he had finished putting up the tent he sat down next to her.

"What's it like?"

"Kohona is like any other ninja village really, just with people I know." She stood up and walked a little way off to get some food for them to eat.

"That's not what I mean, what's the best restaurant in the village? Who's the lazy bugger who's always late to everything? Don't look at me like that there is always one."

"Don't say bugger."

"Oh, but Kaa-san…"

She smiled at him as she walked back with some dried ham and bread which she passed across. "Best restaurant well for you it would probably be the ramen stand Ichiraku due to your love of ramen but for me… Maybe the one on the main street that will cook you whatever you want if the chef can make it but that is pretty expensive. The lazy PERSON is one Kakashi Hatake; the ongoing joke is that he will turn up 3 hours late to his own funeral."

"The great copy ninja is a late all the time?"

"Yup."

"That sucks."

"Especially when you're trying to get a minute finished on time."

Naruto gave a small chuckle as he bit into his sandwich. "It has been a while since you've been in the village, no Kaa-san?"

"Yeah, I haven't been back in a good 12/13 years."

"So things might have changed…?"

She shook her head still smiling though, "Kakashi will never stop being late it is just a part of him."

"But all the little things that make it your home, the sites, smells, people, they might have changed."

"They could have, but I'd still know the place like the back of my hand and I'd know that I would still be accepted as Tsunade of the Sannin when I walk and could start doing missions again if I wanted. It's a place I know very well and I am very comfortable there, if I was there without you then it wouldn't be my home but with you with me I am happy to go back there now."

Naruto finished his sandwich and licked his fingers, "It's nice to have a place like that."

"Hopefully Kohona will soon mean the same to you."

"I hope so." He stood up brushing his hands on his trousers, "I'm going to bed now, and I'll see you in the morning."

"Right, night."

Tsunade watched him go and turned to finish off her sandwich. She hoped that the villagers would see past the Kyuubi and accept Naruto as he was not what he contained. This seemed a faint hope due to the brutality he had to deal with as a child but maybe the next generation of ninja could see things differently. She sighed, getting up having finished her sandwich and went to bed also, they would reach Kohona in a couple of days and she knew that she would do her best to make sure that everyone accepted her son for who he was.

When they woke up the packed up the tent and continued on to Kohona, Naruto wouldn't say it but he wanted to get to Kohona and see what it was like. He had dreamed off it through out his child hood and wondered why the villagers hated him; he wasn't the demon the Kyuubi was but that didn't seem to matter to them. They stopped over night at another inlet of the side of the main road and set of again first thing the next morning. Naruto knew at the pace they were going they would reach Kohona by lunch time.

They stopped just a 5 minuet walk outside the gates; he could see them as he walked along the road. They seemed big and imposing from where he was standing but maybe they were meant to. Naruto clutched the straps of his backpack as they walked closer to the gates.

They were almost there when Tsunade asked softly "Ready?" Naruto looked at her, smiling slightly "Ready as I'll ever be."

They walked right up to the gates, to where Izumo and Koetsu were sitting. Izumo had noticed people walking down the road when they first started walking so when they walked through the gates he and Koetsu were wide awake.

"Name?" Izumo asked he didn't mean to offend but it was his job to monitor the people going in and out of Kohona.

Tsunade looked at him sharply, "Tsunade of the Sannin." Naruto looked him also but understood he was just doing his job, "and Naruto…" He said.

"Uzumaki," Tsunade cut in, Naruto looked at her funny but she brushed him off meaning that she would tell him later.

"Sorry Lady Tsunade," Izumo looked down at his feet. "It has been a while since you've been in the village."

"No problem Izumo." She said as she walked past him, Naruto followed behind her, she seriously did have a good memory he realised. She looked at him and said "Why don't you have a look around? I have some papers that I need to sort out with the Hokage."

"Yeah sure, where do you want to meet me when you're done?"

"I'll find you don't worry."

"O.K"

Tsunade and Naruto parted ways; she head for the Hokage's office which Naruto assumed has the big red building he on the other hand kept walking forward. He jumped up onto a telegraph pole that was to his right to get a good look at the area. He smiled at the people he could see and they smiled back maybe this wouldn't be such a bad place to be after all.

**Hayo! If anyone has any ideas of how he could meet Hinata they would be appreiciated about now... Mine seen wholely unoriginal :) Thanks for reading and hope you enjoy as always!**

**SaiyuXX**


	11. God's Gift to Earth Ichiraku Ramen

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Anime/Manga » Naruto » **The Strength Of Those Left Behind**

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Rated: T - English - Adventure/Romance - Reviews: 129 - Published: 12-26-10 - Updated: 06-13-11

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Naruto surveyed Konoha, it looked every bit ordinary apart from the shinobi jumping from roof to roof, he smiled he had always lived in civilian towns. Not that he minded of course it was just that the only shinobi he could spar with were his Kaa-san and Nee-san. Having more shinobi around meant that he had many more sparring partners, he also hoped that some would be his age; some would have to be if they were taking the Chunnin Exams. He smiled to himself again before jumping of the telephone pylon. He decided he was going to try and fine that Ichiraku place that Tsunade had mentioned before. He had money on him, Tsunade paid all his expenses for him and gave him money that he could do whatever he wanted with.

The ground was teeming with civilians; he didn't know whether not he should take to the roof tops. He didn't want annoy any if the Konoha shinobi even if he thought that he was himself, without a headband to them he was just a civilian who knew too much. He wasn't even a shinobi from an other village here for the Chunnin Exams, if anything he looked a little like a missing-nin. He sighed, he hoped no passing Jounin thought it right to stop him or his Kaa-san would be mighty pissed because he had interrupted a meeting and when he tried to explain that it wasn't his fault that would get him into even more trouble, he knew his Kaa-san's emotions far to well. He walked down the street slowly trying not to attract too much attention to himself, all the civilians in this village were used to weirdly dressed shinobi coming and going. If this wasn't a ninja village he knew he would have been addressed as ninja/shinobi-san twice already. The best to hide, right under people's noses they usually didn't look there. He continued walking, he knew he was still on the main street, he doubted that the ramen stand was there seeing as it would then be really expensive and Tsunade would have mentioned that, it was a hang over from her gambling days she liked to keep a running tally in her head of how much everything was costing. Tsunade hadn't given him any directions to help him find this place, he could have done it himself but it would have taken him a long time so he figured it was better to ask someone. He kept on walking slowly as he looked around for a shinobi that didn't have a flak jacket on that indicated they were Chunnin or above level and someone too young to be a Jounin in their own clothing. He soon saw a pair of boys lounging in the sun just off to the right eating, well at least one of them was the other seemed to just be staring at the sky. They looked about his age so he figured they might be participating in the Chunnin Exams anyway so he went over to ask them directions.

"Excuse me, shinobi-san, shinobi-san." He inclined his hand once towards either of them; he called them san because if they weren't overly sharp they would think he was just another lost trader. There was no point giving away information that he didn't need to at the moment, until his Kaa-san came back with the papers making him a Genin of the leaf these people weren't his comrades. It seemed harsh but in his mind that was how it was, he wouldn't mind them as friends but he didn't know them at all right now so he was being cautious. He scratched the back of his head smiling slightly, "I'm a bit lost you see, I just arrived at the village today and I'm looking for the Ichiraku ramen stand. I have been told it's very good."

The large one looked up from what he was eating, Naruto wasn't usually judgemental but this shinobi was the largest he had met in a long time. It must be something to do with the jutsu he uses Naruto supposed, casting his mind back to when Shizune had taught him about the major shinobi clans in Kohona something was there a niggling feeling, Aka-something or other. Aka, Akami, Akamisi, no that wasn't right either but he knew it was close, that was it he remembered Akimichi; the Akimichi Clan were famous for there expanding techniques that's why they were all quite so large. The Akimichi smiled at him and said, "Who ever told you that was damn right, I prefer barbeque meat myself but that is the best ramen place in the whole of Kohona. What you have to do is turn right at the next street, then left, then two more rights and keep going along that street and you'll get there."

"Thanks," Naruto said smiling at him and was about to turn around and leave when the other ninja coughed loudly. "Are you okay shinobi-san that sounds like a pretty mean sounding cough?" Not that it sounded that bad but the other ninja had obviously been requesting his attention subtlety. Naruto sighed, why out of the whole of Konoha he had talked to the ones who would notice that he wasn't just another trader here to make a profit of the Chunnin Exams he didn't know. The Akimichi was looking at his friend puzzled, so he didn't understand what was going on. He turned back round towards them still smiling openly.

"I'm O.K thanks," said the other ninja slowly. "Where are you from?" His Akimichi friend turned to openly stare at his friend, Naruto supposed that if you didn't know what was going on his friend had just been very rude indeed.

"Shikamaru!" He exclaimed. "You are not meant to ask people that straight away it's not polite!" Shikamaru turned to look at him and sighed poor Choji didn't know it but he'd just given away his friends name.

"I don't mind Akimichi-san, in the shinobi world it is better to be safe than polite." There was no point hiding that he was a shinobi anymore. He turned his head directly towards Shikamaru. "I'm from Konoha." Choji's head snapped up on the sound of his name and he said, "How do you know my name and there is no way you're from Konoha I've never seen you before?"

"Every member of Konoha studies the clans in the academy, so that is how I know your name. You've never seen me before, maybe that is right maybe it isn't, and I've been out of the village for a long time almost 10 years now it may have been a while." Naruto felt all his muscles tighten and he knew that he wouldn't be able to move if he tried, that was Shikamaru's paralyses jutsu for you. "Nara-san would you please let me go, I am no threat to you or this village and I am here for the Chunnin Exams. Also it's not polite to start using jutsu on people who are here for friendly exams that are meant to strengthen bonds between villages."

Shikamaru sighed and let him go, "I apologise shinobi-san." Naruto tried and failed to hide a smirk, he had been very still and composed just like his Kaa-san had taught him to be when dealing with difficult situations. His body obviously relaxed slightly and he smiled at the fact that Shikamaru was calling him shinobi-san just as he had done before. "Don't worry about it; as soon as my Kaa-san gets those papers fixed I'll be a Genin of Konoha any way so it is no big deal. Any way seeing as we're going to be comrades I'd better tell you my name, I'm Naruto."

He said smiling at them before turning away again and continued down the road leaving Shikamaru smirking at his back and Choji openly laughing. Choji turned to regard his friend, "Well you don't meet someone like that every day." He said smiling. Shikamaru nodded before going back to watching clouds.

Tsunade walked through Konoha striding purposefully through the streets, she was glad that they hadn't changed the layout too much and that she was still able to find her way around. She still had her bag on her back that would have to be gotten rid of as soon as she got the papers sorted out. It wasn't done for Tsunade of the Sannin to go around with a back pack on, now that she wasn't on active duty any more anyway. She arrived at the Hokage Tower quite quickly no one had bothered her on route though many had stopped and stared because she was back. She climbed up the steps on the outside of the tower, they were longer than she remembered and seemed to go on for ever. She turned into the main office. A secretary stood and greeted her and showed her into the Hokage's office, she didn't even the littlest bit surprised, Tsunade smiled she remembered what it was like coming in from a long mission and had to report back the Hokage, the relief of getting back to the village but the annoyance having to report back before you could sleep.

"Come in," Sarutobi said and Tsunade kept the smile on her face as she walked into the office and sat down on one of the chairs that were littered around the room dumping her bag down next to her as she did so.

"Ah Tsunade, how are you?"

"I'm good thanks; it is nice to be back in the village I can tell you that. How are you?"

He gestured to the stack of paper work next to him, "Tired really, this job isn't easy and with you here it means just more paper work for me."

Tsunade smirked, "Naruto and I are back now, Shizune is coming up in a couple of days with the furniture and other things like that, were going to live on my old estate if that is O.K and has not been divulged into the state yet."

"No, no, no," He said shaking is head from side to side slowly. "I kept that for you if you ever did return." He reached into the draw to his right and picked out a form and began to fill it in. "How is Naruto doing? Does he need to be entered into the Chunnin Exams or this year academy graduating year?"

"Naruto is doing really well actually; he has grown so much over the years he seems so old to me now. The only thing I regret is that growing up in a civilian village he was scorned by every child because their parents didn't want them mixing with shinobi but even that was better than what was happening here."

"That should have died down by now," Sarutobi seeming a little sullen.

"Yeah, his generation don't know about the Kyuubi so that is a plus. He is going to take the Chunnin Exams he is more than ready for them."

Sarutobi nodded and made another marking on his sheet. "Right, he can go onto team 8 with Hinata Hyuga and Shino Aburame."

Tsunade smiled one short range, one medium and one medium to long range type, it was the perfect start for a team, and the people themselves had to do the rest with teamwork. "Sensei?"

Sarutobi looked up slowly in weariness he'd heard that tone before. "Yes Tsunade?"

"For the last ten years he has gone by the name Naruto Namikaze rather than Uzumaki."

Sarutobi sighed and looked down at the sheet crossing out the name he had written before and changing it. "You know the council aren't going to be pleased," Tsunade nodded. "But then it is his birth rite so they can't take it away from him even if they wanted to, does he know who his parents are?" He asked almost assuming the answer was yes, it was difficult to do Konoha history without mentioning Minato Namikaze.

"He never asked so I haven't told him yet but he knows that I'm not his birth mother. He knows the Minato was Hokage and that his last name was Namikaze to so he could have worked it out for all I know, he isn't as stupid as he would lead you to believe."

Sarutobi nodded, "O.K, are you going to return to active duty?"

"I would like to work at the hospital and would take missions if it was necessary but not preferably."

"That's fine," Sarutobi smiled at her. "Chief of the Field Medical Corps look alright to you?"

"Konoha has a Field Medic Corps, since when?" It had been her idea years ago during war time though and there had not been enough experienced medics to put it into place.

"Since you've returned. There were not enough experienced medical ninja when you were gone but now that you are back it would be a good thing to get up and running."

Tsunade smiled, she could see that her teacher had been planning this for a long time, "How many medic-nins are there now, in the hospital as well as the ranks?"

"20 but all of them are in the hospital. You're going to have to build up the numbers from the Genin that graduated this year and work form there. With Shizune you've got a start, is Naruto going to be a medic-nin?"

Tsunade shrugged, "His path is his to take how he wants it but the skills are there if he wishes to use them. He has better medical skills than some of those so called medic-nins in the hospital I bet but I don't think he loves it as a true medic should, so it's up to him what happens."

Sarutobi nodded, looking guiltily at the stack of paper work in front of him, just a little bit longer he thought to himself. "Would you please inform Naruto that Team 8 meet on training ground 8 at 7 each morning and he is expected to be there tomorrow, I will inform Kurenai that her 3rd squad member has arrived she has been waiting for him for a while. Will you be ready to start the work to train up the Genin tomorrow?"

Tsunade nodded, "That'll be fine, will we have an office?" She asked, she hoped that they did it would save a lot of trouble.

"There is a free space between the Torture and Interrogation Department and the ANBU offices, would that suite you?" He asked his inflection showing that it was this or nothing.

"That will be fine," she said she didn't mind being next to the T&I Department it was part of a shinobi village and the 'Torture' part of the department was done by the holding cells anyway; it was the ANBU that was the problem. Let's just say they could get a little rowdy after their Christmas Parties. Sarutobi reached back into the draw to his right a plucked out a file containing information of this years teams of Genin and this years academy students. Tsunade stood up and took the file out of his outstretched hand. She leafed through it smiling slightly and already picking out people who looked suited to be medic-nin. Sarutobi nodded at the door indicating that this was the end of their conversation; Tsunade didn't mind she knew he had a lot of work to do. She walked the couple of steps back to the chair and picked up her bag and slung it over her shoulder. She walked out the door and back into the corridor, completely ignoring the secretary. Turning out the door she decided that she would go and have a look at these offices that were now her's and finish looking through those folders.

"Right, left, right, right." Naruto muttered to himself as he walked along the street. He'd followed the instructions as Choji had said them and had ended up on the corner of a street trying to see this ramen stand. Then he spotted it, it had its name printed on a banner, how could he have been so stupid as to miss that. Never mind now he thought as he ambled over to the stand, taking a seat in the corner, sitting sideways so he had his back against the wall. No-one else seemed to be there and the obvious daughter of the stand came over to take his order.

"Miso Ramen, please." He said smiling; he tried to always be polite to people whoever they were. He had learned through his own life not to judge people.

Ayame smiled not many people; well shinobi anyway said please to civilians anymore, it was nice to hear. "Sure, and to drink?"

"Water, if you don't mind." He stayed away from sake as if it was poison, though when Tsunade got those papers sorted he could buy it as a legal adult, he had seen Tsunade drunk only once and that had been the second scariest thing he had ever seen. The other was the brutal attack that had been inflicted on Ero-sennin when she caught him peaking at her in the shower.

"Umm…" Ayame started slowly. "If you don't mind shinobi-san, could you please move over a seat, the one you are sitting in at the moment is kind of reserved?" Naruto smiled shifting over one seat to the left, facing the counter now. Even though he hated how perceptive people in this village were, everyone could pick shinobi out of the crowd even he or she wasn't wearing their headband but then maybe that was expected from people who'd lived around them so long.

"Is that O.K?" He asked indicating the seat that he was sitting in now.

"Perfect, thank you. It is just that Hina-chan always sits there and she should be done with her training soon and even though she wouldn't mention it, it would upset her a little not being able to sit there. You see…" Naruto shushed her with a wave of her hand.

"Look, I'm sorry what did you say your name was I didn't catch it?" Ayame smiled that was because she hadn't said it, the fact that he had asked was nice in itself.

"Ayame." She said, not many people asked, most of the patrons called her 'girl', especially when they had been on the sake, which she found terrible degrading.

"Look, Ayame-san I don't mind, honestly. It is only a seat if it matters a lot to 'Hina' then I'll happily move, not all shinobi are stuck up gits you know." Naruto smiled, he wasn't lying he truly didn't mind. Though that didn't stop him wondering who this 'Hina' person was, maybe she was entered into the Chunnin Exams too or maybe she was an old woman who spent all her time and her pension on/at Ichiraku ramen. It didn't matter it would be nice to meet and talk to someone who lived in Konoha.

"Oh, O.K, right then, one Miso Ramen with water coming right up." Ayame smiled relieved that he really didn't seem to mind and scurried off to give his ramen order to her father.

Naruto relaxed into his chair, looking around the ramen stand. It had 5 seats from one side to the other; it seemed homely and comforting as if Ayame and her father always became friends with regular costumers. It was a nice place he decided and that he would come here as often as he could especially if they served as good ramen as Tsunade said they did.

Hinata was out of breath, she had been sparring with Hanabi, again. "That was nice Hana, you're getting better." She complemented her little sister though she knew she'd probably take it the wrong way.

"But I still can't beat you!" She complained as she slumped on the grass looking up at her big sister. "It's not fair!"

"You've got to remember that I'm older than you, more practise time." Hinata told her as she stretched trying to relax the muscles in her legs and arms. Wiping the sweat from her brow she continued, "Are you going to stay here and practise, I think I'll head into town?"

"I think I'll stay here for a bit longer." Hanabi said standing up again and settling into the kata she was meant to be practising. Though Hinata had not mentioned it by name, she knew her sister was off to Ichiraku. She always went there at about this time, everyday. She had taken Hanabi there once but she hadn't liked the ramen particularly so she hadn't gone again.

Hinata looked at her, "Make sure you're home by 8." Hinata instructed, smiling though, Hanabi had never been late to her knowledge and didn't intend to start now. Hanabi nodded but now she was ignoring her sister and had begun to move through the kata steps. "Bye," Hinata said in a sarcastic tone. Grunt was all she got in reply, not that she minded much. Hinata turned her back and walked towards the entrance of the training field. Ichiraku had been a constant for her for a while now, Ayame always knew how to get her to smile and laugh so she wasn't feeling so down anymore. Anko and she would go when Anko wasn't on mission but unfortunately today she was on some long information gathering mission to Rain, she wouldn't be back for another month yet.

She walked down the streets towards Ichiraku, with a smile on her face and a song under her breath. When she turned the corner she didn't notice the other shinobi in the stand, well not until she almost kicked him by accident of course as she swung herself onto the seat next to him.

"Sorry," she said not failing to notice that he blocked the kick with his palm without even turning around to look at her. He turned around to face her, smiling as always. "No problem," he said, "the ramen they serve here is worth almost getting kicked in the head for."

She let out a small laugh, which was good he obviously didn't want a fight then. "Yeah, I find that too." She stood up on the steps the help people get up onto the chair and waved one arm in the air and shouted "AYA-CHAN!" The waitress stuck her head out of the door to the kitchen, "Haya, Hina-chan just wait a minute and it'll be ready, the usual no?"

"Of course," Hinata said smiling. It usually took 5 minutes to make ramen, they had obviously started cooking her's before she got there. The waitress went back into the kitchen and brought out a bowl of Miso Ramen, well that was fast, Hinata thought. That was until it was placed in front of the shinobi sitting next to her. He was so obviously a shinobi, no civilian would have been able to block the kick.

"Thank you Ayame-san," Naruto said before tucking in. Laughing quietly to the antics of this Hina person, she obviously loved her ramen and was no push over either. That kick that she had thrown was so close to connecting, he just wasn't expecting it really. He flexed his left hand under the table, trying to relax it a little. He tilted his head to look at her, her hair hand been let down now and was hanging at her lower back, the black trench coat that was the same as his in everything except colour and her eyes. Her eyes had no pupils and were solid white. Byakugen eyes, one of the most advanced do-jutsu around, along with the Uchiha's of course, that was the blood line of the Hyuga clan. He smirked at the look on her face; she had thought that the ramen was her's obviously. "Hyuga-san I was here before you."

"I know," she said smiling back. "But one can always hope. Do you mind me asking your name shinobi-san, you know mine obviously?" She hated the fact that people could tell who she was by her bloodline and then it was only her last name they knew. They didn't know who she was by her own merit but the merit of her ancestors, which annoyed her a tad.

"Namikaze Naruto." Screw the fact the Kaa-san said not to use Namikaze but it is my name, so I can use it if I want, he thought. Did it matter that he shared his name with the 4th? He didn't think so anyway.

Namikaze? Hinata didn't let the shock show on her face. No-one had mentioned that the 4th had had a son, maybe he hadn't and this was just a coincidence but she looked at the blonde. The way he wore his hair, his face, they looked remarkably like the 4th's. Hinata felt sorry for the boy, to grow up without parents must have been very hard. "Nice to meet you Namikaze-san. I haven't seen you around here before?"

She phrased it like a statement but Naruto knew it was a question. "I'm here for the Chunnin Exams." He knew he would be explaining that again and again to any Konoha shinobi who didn't know who he was.

"Oh, from which village?" Hinata asked as Ayame brought out her ramen, thanking her she started eating.

"As soon as my Kaa-san gets some papers in order, Konoha."

His Kaa-san? This made Hinata even more confused, she never knew the 4th had gotten married; maybe it was just a very weird coincidence. Not that she was discounting it or forgetting it, shinobi who did that usually ended up dead. So he's entering on behalf of Konoha, which would mean he'd need to be on a 3 man team, consisting of all Konoha shinobi. She mulled this over for a minute; she knew that Kurenai had been worried for about the past month that they (her and Shino) were not going to be able to go into the Chunnin Exams because they were only a 2 man team. She had said something about, a boy coming who had been trained outside of the village but was still loyal to Konoha. Maybe this was him, which would be O.K Hinata thought, at least she knew he wasn't weak and had a good dress sense. Not that the later was overly important but it is good not to let the side down. "That's nice, is your Kaa-san meeting with the Hokage now?"

"Yeah, I don't know when they'll be finished though. She said she'd find me." Hinata nodded showing that she understood. "What about you Hyuga-san, are you entering the Chunnin Exams?" He asked her, hoping that this didn't over step the bounds of shinobi conversation. In their world they could chat for hours without giving away a single piece of information about themselves it was a skill that all good shinobi would acquire eventually. Naruto knew that he had already told her his name and that he was here for the Chunnin Exams and that was the only information he was going to give until he knew her a little better at least.

She thought for a moment wondering if this was O.K to share and decided that it was, he was going to be a comrade soon anyway and she couldn't shake the feeling like she'd seen him somewhere before. "That depends; at the moment we are waiting for a member of our team that was trained outside of the village to join us. If he doesn't get here soon then we may not be allowed to enter a 2 man team." Naruto smiled his question had been answered to true shinobi form, answered his question while giving away as little information as possible.

He looked at her, keeping his eyes firmly on her face, no need to aggravate kunoichi, his Kaa-san had made sure he was never going to peek on any-one, ever. That beating she gave Ero-sennin, he shivered, the weird thing to Naruto that his Uncle (as he now saw Jiraiya) didn't even try to fight back, and he must ask him about that later. "One shinobi, loyal to Konoha but trained outside the village, present." He said this with one hand in the air as if he was answering a register in class.

Hinata let herself laugh, she had to give it to this guy, and he could make her laugh. "Well if you are he, then we can enter the Chunnin Exams, if not then my team is kind of screwed." Naruto laughed as well, hoping that he would be on this girl's team, they were getting on well. Naruto pushed his bowl towards the front of the counter he was finished, "That was the most delicious ramen I have ever had." He said.

"Better be," Ayame said as she cleared up the bowl. Naruto snorted, he had almost forgotten she was there, almost but not quite. "Definitely," he replied putting his hands up in mock surrender.

Tsunade strode out of the Hokage building; she had to go find Naruto. She didn't realise how long she had spent looking through those files until, she noticed that dusk was falling on Konoha. She hoped she remembered the way to Ichiraku's because that is where she'd bet Naruto would be, not that she ever did very well on her bets. She turned the corner and saw him sitting at the stand talking the girl sitting next to him and the waitress, holding his hands up in mock surrender. She smirked, he'd been in town one day and he had already found people that he liked, that was a gift. She walked up behind him and hugged him hard, making him squeal and the Hyuga girl laugh.

"Kaa-san," he complained. "I thought we agreed that if you didn't hug me in public then I wouldn't tell anyone about the fact that…"

Tsunade clamped her hand over his mouth to stop him telling the whole ramen stand that she used a genjutsu to cover up the fact that she was around 50, even Naruto didn't know her exact age she refused to tell anyone. "Now, now Naru-kun it's not nice to go telling people other people's secrets like that."

Naruto mumbled a sorry through her hand and she let him go not before laughing at the look on his face. "What?" Naruto asked not understanding that it made him look a little stupid.

"Your face, it really isn't important though," she looked down at his bowl of finished ramen. "It looks like you're almost finished here." Naruto nodded before turning towards Hinata and Ayame.

"Thank you for the lovely ramen Ayame-san, there is no way I'm not coming back to get some more later." He smirked before turning to Hinata, "Thank you for the conversation Hyuga-san, maybe I'll see you tomorrow." He turned back to his Kaa-san receiving a smile and goodbye from Hinata and a sure do from Ayame.

His Kaa-san smiled by the look on that Hyuga girls face she was surprised to see Tsunade of the Sannin turn up at her local ramen restaurant, not that she minded the look it was just she'd rather be seen as Naruto's mother. She smiled as Naruto raised his hand to wave at the girls before they both turned and walked off down the street towards Tsunade's old compound. "So what do you think of Konoha?"

Naruto smiled up at his Kaa-san, "Oh I think that I will like it here, I think I will like it a lot."

**Hayo, sorry for it being up so late have been busy... AGAIN! So yeah soz... Took a while to work out where this was going also but anywayz this story is not being dropped it just takes forever for me to write. Hope you enjoyed anyway...**

**Saiyuxx**

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	12. Meet The Team

**Thanks To:**

**Luckyschoolgirl**

**Ladygodess8**

**quinton klokateer 666**

**RedRangerBelt: He's worked it out.**

**Cake guy**

****

**Slatedfox: Jiraiya has definitely taught him that! **

**Hypnotic Flames**

**AmorousGrunty**

**Alchemists19**

**Okazaki323**

**Riku Uzumaki**

**Ferduran**

**Rose Tiger**

**Oh and a big shout out to Tora No Musume who stops me going crazy during Spanish, thanks **

**Disclaimer: I DON'T OWN NARUTO IF I DID I WOULD MAKE THEM DANCE! **

Naruto woke up to his alarm clock going off at 5.30. His Kaa-san had said that he had to meet Kurenai at 7 but he wanted to be already warmed up and ready by the time they got there. He walked down to the bathroom not caring how much noise he made. Kaa-san's compound was so much bigger than their old apartments used to be so there was no chance of waking anyone up. He couldn't help but stare at the walls on his way down the hall there were pictures hanging everywhere and ornate rugs decorating the floor, he reasoned that the house must be worth a bomb. He stayed in the shower for precisely 11 minutes before getting out and making his way back to his bedroom. Opening his wardrobe he grabbed his clothes and slung them on, making sure that his weights were securely fastened. He reached over to his bedside table and grabbed the hair tie that was sitting there so it didn't get in his eyes and his Konoha headband which he tied round his head. His Kaa-san had given it to him yesterday when they had got home. He figured that Tsunade wasn't going to be up yet so when he walked down 3 stair cases and into the kitchen (only getting lost once, which he was very proud of) he was very surprised to see Tsunade sitting there nursing a cup of coffee.

"Kaa-san, you do know it is half 5 in the morning don't you?"

Tsunade glared over her coffee at him, "Of course I do, that is why I resent being up so early but the Hokage made Chief of the Field Medical Corps so," she gestured towards the files she'd brought home with her last night. "I have to take these into my new office in the Hokage building and work out a training schedule for whoever I see fit. Hopefully I can see them before the start of the Chunnin exams…" She trailed off thinking it through in her head. "Your team should be fine though with you on it, just none of the others have any medical training at all."

Naruto looked around from where he was putting his bread in the toaster. "No medical training, none at all?" He sounded really shocked. "Not even how to apply a bandage?"

Tsunade smiled, "I think they teach that in the Academy, I meant like broken bones and things like that."

He relaxed a bit and smiled as his toast popped up. "Oh, that's better then, well at least a little." He picked up his toast plate and sat opposite his Kaa-san. "Well I hope your day isn't too busy."

"Don't give me false hope; it will make me feel worse later." She said with smile. "You'll have a much better day than me meeting your knew team."

Naruto grinned, "I better, I hope I'm on the same team as the Hyuga I met yesterday; she seemed nice."

Tsunade laughed, "She seemed nice? Don't you mean she liked ramen?"

"Always a bonus people liking ramen, never met a bad person who loved ramen." Naruto said cheekily.

Tsunade finished her cup of coffee and stood up, "Neither have I but there is usually an exception to most rules."

Naruto got up too as he had finished and washed his plate in the sink. "Not this one Kaa-san, not this one." He said as he went to pick up his lunch which was sitting on the counter where he had left it the night before. He glanced at the clock it was 6.00 so he had about 45 minutes warm up time once he got to training ground 8. "Right, I'm going now so I'll see you later, try not to kill yourself with paper work." He said heading towards the door.

"I won't." Tsunade shouted at his retreating figure before he turned and waved goodbye. Tsunade smiled she had a nice boy there.

Naruto jumped up onto the roof and started running across it. As he now had his headband no-one was going to tell him that he had to walk so this was much quicker. He had been going 5 minutes before he realised that he had forgotten to ask Tsunade directions. He figured that the training grounds would be away from the city centre so that was the way he headed. A good 15 minutes later he found the training grounds and went along counting them until he got to number 7. He walked in, it just seemed like a field with 3 posts in the centre but he knew from experience that almost anyplace could be used to train as long as you did it correctly.

Naruto started running around the training field a good 100 times should do the trick. It would only take him about 10 minutes as he was very used to his weights now and was thinking of changing them but probably after the Chunnin Exams would be a good idea. At the moment he was on 40kg, 45kg was the next one up but he wouldn't be used to it in the week left until the exams. He finished running and he started stretching, Kaa-san had drilled into him that torn muscles were not good for anyone. When he had finished stretching he turned around as he felt another presence enter the field.

It was a woman about 5'6" in the flat sandals she was wearing, she was wearing ninja mesh and a red t-shirt with only one sleeve covered in dress that seemed to be made of bandages. That seemed a bit weird to him but he couldn't say much dressed in a white trench coat and all black clothes. She smiled as she saw him standing there and made her way over to him.

She held her hand out towards him saying, "I'm Kurenai Yuhi and I'm the Jounin responsible for team 8, you are Naruto I assume?"

He shook her hand with a smile gracing his lips, "Yeah, it's nice to meet you, I've never been in a team before so this should be an interesting."

"Oh it will be. Before the others get here do you mind if I ask what kind of shinobi you are, range, elemental affinity etc.?"

"No not at all your my sensei now you need to know don't you? I'm kinda short to medium range my taijutsu is good but my medium range nin-jutsu is my strongest point. My elemental affinity is wind and I know a lot of medical ninjutsu so I'll probably be this team's medic until Kaa-san gets round to train one with better chakra control." He smiled and let go of her hand using it to scratch the back of his head.

Kurenai nodded she had heard all about Tsunade coming back and being appointed Chief of the Field Medical Corps. Much too late in Kurenai's opinion but she understood that this needed to be done in a time of peace. "Oh that fits in with the team almost perfectly, how are your tracking skills?"

"My sense of smell and hearing are increased a little but not to the extent of an Inuzuka and my shadow clones are dispensable so that is good for tracking but not really my speciality I admit."

Kurenai looked at him, "Good, that fits in with our team pretty well." She glanced around the field. "Here come Shino and Hinata, I'm surprised that Hinata wasn't here before she usually spends the morning training."

Naruto almost laughed at that if the girl was 'Hina' Hyuga then he was really going to like her, she certainly looked similar to the girl he had been talking to last night but to him most Hyugas looked the same. This ramen eating girl who spent her morning training to get better, she seemed to agree with most of his principles.

Hinata and Shino walked over to them talking with each other quietly, they obviously got along quite well. Hinata smiled when she came closer because if Naruto was there then he was their 3rd team member and they could enter the Chunnin Exams.

"Namikaze-san," she said but not formally, lightly.

He waved the –san away with a flick of his wrist, "Naruto, please. We're on the same team now."

Kurenai broke in, "Hinata, Shino, I would like to formally introduce your 3rd team member, Naruto Namikaze. Naruto, this is Hinata Hyuga and Shino Aburame."

"Hinata-san, Shino-san." Naruto was smiling though he wasn't relaxed. He was trying to gauge how these people worked, he was a new variable in this group and he didn't know where he fitted in.

"It is nice to meet you, Naruto-san." Shino said, again Naruto waved away the –san again with a smile with the words no need.

Kurenai clapped her hands, "Now that you're introduced we better get down to some training. We have the Chunnin Exams in a week and you've never worked together before so we are going to start with taijutsu matches so you begin to learn each other's weaknesses and skills."

Shino groaned a very un-Shino like groan, Naruto was puzzled at this the guy didn't look weedy but from the smile on Hinata's face he was sure he was going to find out.

"It won't be that bad Shino," Kurenai said quietly before continuing, "Hinata you will spar with Naruto first, give Shino a moment to get used to the idea."

"Umm… Is it pure taijutsu or can you use chakra?"

"You can use Gentle Fist if you like." Kurenai said but it was as if she trying to tell her to avoid it. Again it was Naruto's turn to look puzzled wasn't the specialised Hyuga fighting style Gentle Fist? Kurenai pointed a way off, "Start over there so we're not in the blast zone."

Hinata and Naruto smirked and walked over to where she had been pointing. "Ready?" Hinata asked.

"As I'll ever be," Naruto said. Hinata smirked at this and slid into the Gentle Fist stance, she'd go easy on him at the beginning just to judge him a bit.

"Then let's go!" Hinata shouted before pushing off the ground and launching herself at him aiming at his arms. Naruto saw her coming and was already in stance before she moved using an open palm block diverted the attack without letting her touch his skin, even he knew a little about the style.

He went low aiming to kick one of the pressure points in her leg with his heel. She jumped in the air to avoid but instead of falling straight back to the ground she did a whip in mid-air so she landed behind him and hit him in the kidneys with her palm. Naruto coughed but didn't fall over; wow Hinata thought he must really have a high pain tolerance level. He quickly turned around grabbing her arm as he did so and popping her shoulder out of place. He jumped back still coughing a little to give her a bit of time to recover. "Sorry," he said. "I know a lot of about medicine so I'll fix it for you when we're done here."

The only answer he got was a grunt as he watched her change stance, Kurenai sighed from where she as sitting with Shino, "She really should have used this from the beginning."

He nodded in agreement. "I think she just wanted to test him a bit, see how good he is."

"Well now she knows," Kurenai said, "Well now she knows."

Naruto wasn't really sure what happened next, all he knew was that a blur was attacking and that he was defending with all his might. Hinata wasn't landing a load of hits but Naruto was losing a lot of ground, dogging and blocking. Basically Hinata was controlling the fight and Naruto didn't overly like it, there had to be some way to stop the blur of black trench coat. That was when it came to him, Swift Feet. If Hinata had got faster then Naruto had to get faster too. Channelling chakra to his feet he started dodging all her attacks faster which gave him a chance to fit back. Considering that Hinata was fighting with a dislocated shoulder she was giving him a hell of a hard match, she'd give Shizune a run for her money if all healthy. Though Naruto had started landing some punches and kicks it was when Hinata finally got behind him and held a kunai to his throat that he had to surrender.

"Good match," Naruto said smiling though out of breath. Hinata had removed the kunai from his throat and had put it away.

She returned the smile. "Yeah, you were good. Do you specialise in taijutsu?"

"No," Naruto said as they made their way over to Kurenai and Shino. "Ninjutsu is probably my strongest area, but outside of pure taijutsu style fights you'd be fighting me and my clones. Now would you like me to have a look at your shoulder?"

"Yeah, if you don't mind?" Hinata said stopping so he could heal her shoulder, he smiled at her to show that he didn't mind healing her arm at all. He healed it quickly a dislocation wasn't complicated you just had to but the ball back in the socket most of the jutsu was pain number so it didn't hurt as much.

"Sorry," Naruto said when he was finished. "I just reacted on instinct."

Hinata smiled, "As long as you react on instinct towards enemies as well as comrades then it's all good." They stood were now back standing in front of Kurenai and Shino.

"Well done you two," Kurenai said, looking up at them. "Hinata you really should have started in Dragon Style, you wouldn't have had to fight with a dislocated shoulder if you had. In the Chunnin Exams starting off with Gentle Fist would be a good unless you know your enemies strength in advance, if you had to fight Neji or Lee in a one-on-one taijutsu fight."

"Or anyone on the Sand Team," Naruto said interjecting. "Kaa-san and I went there once to help this kid Gaara, I bet he'll be here for the exams. He's a good friend of mine but he's strong as are his siblings, if you want to beat them going full power is the only way."

"Thanks for the info," Kurenai said. "Naruto you did well, especially as this is Hinata's speciality. Watch your back though she could have easily stuck a kunai through your kidney." Naruto nodded taking in the information, he should have used Swift Feet from the beginning he may have won if he had. Hinata looked at the ground she had won but only because he made a mistake. She should have won because she was better.

"Shino you can fight Naruto next and then Hinata last so she can rest her shoulder for a bit."

Naruto nodded and turned to Hinata, "Just do slow rotations with it to make sure it is in the right position and after that it should be fine." Hinata thanked him and began the rotations slowly as Shino walked over to where they were fighting before and Naruto followed.

Hinata sat down next to Kurenai to watch the fight, "It is going to be good for the team to have him here," She said lightly.

Kurenai chuckled, "Give him one thing, he sure is different I don't think that I've seen that smile drop from his face for the past hour."

"Yeah, it's nice to meet someone who seems openly happy these days, unlike Sasuke." Hinata agreed. "And he likes ramen!"

"Is that all you think about?"

"Not all I think about… Honest," Hinata leaned back resting her head between her hands. Her shoulder felt perfectly fine as she contently watched the boys spar. Naruto had a rather large advantage but that was to be expected because he'd given her a proper workout. The fight wouldn't last much longer as Shino was tiring and Naruto was on the attack.

Kurenai echoed her thoughts with, "You ready Hinata? Shino doesn't look like he's going to last much long against Naruto."

"His taijutsu is good it's just that ours is better." She said slightly sadly, but that was the way the ninja world worked, you got as good as you got but if someone was better then you lost and died in the process. It was a brutal life to follow but the rewards were huge when you got to the higher mission you just had to live that long.

"Hinata you're up," Kurenai said gesturing to Naruto who was supporting Shino as they ambled back towards them.

"Shino doesn't look overlay ready for another spar…?" Hinata said slowly ready to fight or not.

Kurenai tilted her head to one side reassessing Shino, "Yeah I suppose you're right, maybe some target practise would be better for him."

Hinata smiled she didn't really enjoy beating up a team mate to 'put them in their place,' that was a Hyuga thing to do yes but not a Hinata thing and anyway she needed some practise. Naruto and Shino were now standing in front of them.

"Instead of making Shino spar with Hinata right now, we're going to do target practise instead."

Naruto smiled, "I can help you with that," He said, "I can give you moving targets." 10 shadow clones appeared without a noise but with a small puff of smoke, he had not gone back on what he promised Jiraiya about learning it without the hand signs.

"We'll go spread out and move around making it harder for you to hit," the clones chorused before spreading out around the training field. Shino laughed quietly causing Naruto to look at him in a funny way; he hadn't heard him laugh yet.

Hinata picked 5 kunai out of her pouch and began to throw them at the clones who seemed to be dancing around in some kind of order, unfortunately none of them hit; it was harder hitting moving targets. She looked quizzically at Naruto, "Are they doing a dance routine?"

He nodded, "Yeah, I grew up in a civilian village so I learnt some of the routines of the local kids by just watching them." She looked at him sadly; with no other shinobi children around he would probably have been excluded from all games.

Naruto picked up 10 kunai one on each finger and threw them all at once, 9 out of the 10 hit home. "Damn," he muttered but only Hinata heard him.

"What do you mean damn? You hit 9 out of 10." Hinata asked; turning her back to the clone left as she did so. She hadn't hit any, she was much better at dodging to be honest.

"I usually hit all 10, I've got an advantage you see I know all the moves to the dance they are doing!" He said, "I know where they're going next."

The clone he hadn't hit yet looked up startled and stopped dancing and pulled out a shuriken of its own and threw it straight at Hinata whose back was still turned. Naruto watched as the shuriken get closer to Hinata.

"Hinata…" He said slowly.

"I know," She said quietly but completely confidently. Naruto stared at her; she didn't even have her Byakugan activated, how did she know, maybe she could just feel it? Then as it neared her she just ducked leaving the shuriken to fly straight over her head. Straight at Naruto, he side stepped it easily as he could see it coming.

"That was amazing." Naruto said amazed

"You think so?"

"Of course it was. It was extraordinary. It was quite extraordinary."

"That's not what people normally say."

"What do people normally say?"

And with a completely straight face she completed the quote, "Piss off." She didn't know when they started quoting Sherlock Holmes but they both doubled over laughing.

"I can't believe you know that!" Naruto enthused. "I've never met another person outside of my family has seen it."

"You'd like to meet Anko-sensei she's seen it too." Hinata smiled at him, she hoped Kurenai didn't hear her, Kurenai understood Anko was her 1st sensei but it still hurt her a little to hear it.

Naruto looked at her, "Seriously though, that was amazing."

"Thanks," Hinata said. "I can just sense things coming. As you can see with the kunai, I dodge better than I throw." Naruto was still laughing.

"I'll keep that in mind." He said shaking his head while laughing.

Kurenai looked over to the two teens laughing and getting on with each other and smiled to herself, Naruto was good for this team. She shouted over to them, "Naruto can you make some more clones for you all to hit or are you laughing too much?"

He had the good grace to look sheepish and created 20 clones of the same standard as before. This time instead of dancing they were running around in a completely random way.

Naruto turned to smile at Shino, "Ready?"

Shino looked at him, "If you leave any left for me." He wasn't being harsh and was joking along too.

"Of course," he said saluting slightly, joking.

Shino picked up his kunai and looked at the running Narutos and threw them one by one. Out of the 20 he hit 15 which was rather good for huge moving targets.

"Well done," Naruto said holding his hands up for a high five. Shino slapped his hand as Naruto created more clones for them to have a go at. This time they started running up trees and using Head Hunter to dive under the ground at random intervals.

This continued for the next hour or so with them hitting more each time. Naruto got his 99% back quite quickly and Shino was pretty good too; Hinata had a bit of trouble with moving targets so Naruto created a single clone that would dodge out of the way every now and then for her.

'Leave her to dodging,' Naruto thought before going on to wonder how her family as prestigious as they were had not taught to throw weapons. Her father must have had a hand in her training.

Training finished at about 5 after more sparring sessions and chakra control training. Naruto for the chakra control training concentrated on trying to make his chakra make pretty patterns in the air. He had mastered the others as his chakra control was so haphazard; he needed to practise them all.

"Hey Shino, Hinata, you want to head over to Ichiraku's ramen stand for ramen?" He asked as they left the training ground together having already bid goodbye to Kurenai.

"Nah thanks," Shino said quietly. "I'm not a big fan of the stuff."

"Alright," Naruto said before turning to Hinata. "Hinata?"

Hinata bit her bottom lip for a moment, "I'll have to swing by training ground 3 but after that then sure." Naruto nodded to her.

"I'll go with you then, we can walk to Ichiraku's from there." They waved goodbye to Shino and headed towards training ground 3, Naruto wondering all the time why they were going. They reached training ground 3 Naruto saw a young girl going through the Gentle Fist kata very quickly. To be honest the girl looked like a mini-Hinata with longer hair.

"Hana!" Hinata called. "Are you ok?" Naruto stayed at the entrance to the training field and watched.

Hanabi looked up from what she was doing and walked over to Hinata, "Yeah I'm fine," She gestured to Naruto. "Who is he?"

Hinata smiled, "He's my third team member, we're going for ramen now but I just wanted to pop in to see if you were ok."

"Yeah I'm fine, go and enjoy your ramen. Are you coming back later?"

"Probably but I'm not sure. If not I'll see you at home at 8 ok?"

"Sure, sure." Hanabi said, turning around and going back to training. Hinata smiled at her back and headed back towards Naruto.

"Your sister?" He asked.

"Yeah," Hinata said as they headed off towards Ichiraku's. "We're very close."

"I noticed," he said with a smile. As he saw Ichiraku's come into view. "Ah, it is nice to have such great ramen so close."

"Hmm, I eat here most days." She said as they drew nearer the stand. Jumping on to the chair, swinging her legs round, almost vaulting the chair as she had done the day before. Naruto hadn't sat down yet so she didn't have to worry about kicking people in the head. Naruto laughed and sat down next to her.

"One day you are going to do someone a serious injury doing that."

"People should learn not to sit next to me. AYA-CHAN!" She shouted the last part and Ayame came over to talk to her.

"Hay Hina-chan, your ramen will be done in just a minute, as always. Oh, sorry I didn't see you there," She turned to Naruto whipping out her notebook. "Don't worry Ayame-san, just a miso ramen please."

"Coming right up." Ayame said and went off to get the order cooking.

Naruto and Hinata sat in comfortable silence for a while before Hinata said, "It must have been hard, having Tsunade-sama as a Kaa-san, must be a lot to live up to."

"You have no idea," He replied. Not thinking she could have any handle on the situation, he had worked out long ago that Minato Namikaze was his father and that was added pressure to be great. The Hyuga clan though held its heiress in very high expectations and if she failed there would be a much harder punishment. She had a very good idea but it would take him a long time to realise. Instead of taking her question seriously he made it a joke. "But I think she just wanted me to be the best I could be, so that meant teaching me a hell of a lot, young."

Hinata nodded, she understood the premise but she didn't think her father would ever agree. It was all about strength for the clan, everything he did was for the clan. "That would've been." Naruto didn't notice her change of tense, that may have been because Hinata didn't notice she'd done it.

It was then Hinata's ramen appeared, "No fair," Naruto grumbled smiling.

Hinata picked up her chop sticks and pointed them at him, "Now, now, favourite customers first."

He laughed and sat there waiting patiently for his ramen and when it did he dug into it with as much vigour as Hinata had. They sat there chatting for about another half an hour before they decided to head home or Hinata's case back to training.

"Bye Hinata," Naruto said smiling at the girl, "See you in training tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow Naruto," She said before starting back towards the training ground containing her little sister.

Naruto watched her go and smiled slightly to himself, it seemed to him what he had told his Kaa-san yesterday were true, he was going to like it here.

**Hoped you enjoyed it, I aim to please. Oh if anyone has any ideas for a one shot plot bunny I wouldn't mind suggestions…?**

**Saiyuxx**


	13. What Would Jiraiya Do?

**Hayo everybody, sorry for updating so late I've been kind of busy lately… Anyway hope you enjoy. Warning for a bit of Sasuke, Sakura and Ino bashing in this chapter. Thank you to;**

**xbamsod**

**Yoru Kurogane**

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**Tora No Musume**

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**Riku Uzumaki**

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**Disclaimer – I don't own Naruto, I just play around with the plot a bit. **

Naruto woke up with a start, it was 6.30. He wasn't due at the test centre for the Chunnin Exams until 9.30 so he had let himself lie in for once. He quickly decided that a large breakfast was in order as he had no idea what the test was going to be. He had pestered his Kaa-san for hours on what the test was but all he got for his troubles was a smack across the back of the head.

He went down to the kitchen without getting lost; this feat had taken all week to perfect. He cooked himself a full fry up; something Jiraiya had taught him while complaining the things Tsunade had taught him to cook were too healthy for the godson of the great toad sage. He cast his mind back to the week of training as he started. The week had passed surprisingly quickly; his training combined with hanging out with the genins of Konoha had made it a pleasurable one also.

There was only about three genin in the entire village that he didn't like, namely Ino, Sakura and Sasuke. Sasuke was a stuck up ego-centric git, he had refused to talk to Naruto at all! Naruto all in all found that particularly offensive. It didn't help that Ino and Sakura seemed obsessed with fanning the flame of his ego by being hyper fan girls. Naruto hoped that the Chunnin Exams helped them grow a backbone and train a bit or they were going to end up dead. He seriously felt sorry for Shikamaru, Choji and Kiba, not that he knew the latter very well. He got on well with Choji and Shikamaru finding the lazy ninjas company refreshing especially after he realized how clever the guy was.

Naruto stuck his plate in the sink, leaving it for Shizune. She was working as Tsunade's assistant at the moment but still did most of the housework. Tsunade had worked tirelessly creating training schedules for the other teams and trying to get at least one of them up to scratch in a week. Naruto's team was left until after the Chunnin Exams as they already had him.

He quickly made sure he had everything he needed; kunai, shuriken, food, field medical kit and water, everybody always seemed to forget how important water was. Naruto had to until he had ended up passed out due to dehydration with his Kaa-san scolding him. With a satisfied smile on his face he left the house under the impression he was prepared for the Exam.

He arrived at the outside of the training centre at 8.00 he had figured that it didn't hurt to be early and quickly spotted Lee practising outside. When he had first met Lee he hadn't noticed the weights he wore as he moved around in them so fluidly, it had taken Hinata pointing them out for him to notice. It was then he heard a rustle in the trees behind him, he quickly turned around and threw a kunai directly at the noise.

He looked up into the tree and saw Gaara standing there, his sand having reached out and stopped the kunai. "Gaara," he shouted waving. He and the red head had been firm friends since Tsunade had helped him.

"You really shouldn't go around sneaking up on people like that!" He continued, shaking his figure up at the tree in jest. "I could have died of a heart attack." Gaara jumped down beside him.

"I doubt it." Gaara didn't talk much and he and Naruto had an agreement that Naruto would prattle on about something or another and he would nod and interject every now and again.

"So, how are you doing? Haven't seen you in ages," he looked around Gaara. "Where are Temari and Kankuro, I can't see them? They have to be here somewhere unless you're planning on entering the Chunnin Exam on you own, not sure that is entirely in the rules but it's you so that doesn't really matter."

"They'll be here later."

"That's good, less paperwork. My team should be here soon I'll introduce you, they are very nice. I wonder what the first test is, I hope we don't have to fight anyone first round. I'd rather leave that till later weed out the completely incompetent before sending them to their deaths."

"They graduated the Academy, no?"

Naruto sighed, "You only have to know three jutsu to graduate and they are surprisingly simple. It is demoralising the kind of shit that get to genin rank in this village, you'd have been able to beat them at the age of six. They are fan girls and idiots and don't know a thing about being a ninja."

Naruto was so caught up in his rant that he didn't respond when Hinata turned up behind him, she turned to Gaara. "Is he going on about Sakura and Ino again? He really does find them annoying."

Gaara seemed a little taken aback by her presence when Naruto butted in, "Hinata meet Gaara, Gaara this is Hinata she's on my team."

Gaara nodded relaxing slightly if she was on Naruto's team then she was probably trustworthy. "Nice to meet you."

"And you," she said smiling warmly. "Have you seen Shino yet Naruto?"

"No," Naruto replied. "We are just going to have to wait for them." Hinata was slightly confused about why he'd said them but let it go.

And wait for them they did. Soon they were surrounded many of the leaf genin teams bar 7 as Naruto refused to be near them. Gaara stood right next to Naruto talking very sparingly but smiling and laughing all the same. To say the least, Temari and Kankuro were very shocked to see their reclusive and sometimes scary bother surrounded by all these people smiling happily. That was until they spotted Naruto next to him. Temari turned to Kankuro, "He really is a nice guy isn't he?"

"Yeah," He muttered, "Yeah sure is. Do you think Gaara will tell him about…?"

"If he does we'll have to go with his decision, he's sand's best fighter without him we'd all die."

Temari nodded grimily she knew how close a friend Naruto was and how far Gaara goes to protect people he considers friends.

Team 8 and The Sand Team headed into the building together, that way they didn't have to deal with any of the idiots who got stuck with the simple genjutsu on the door. The fact there were so many standing outside trying to get in was just showing how many people weren't ready for the exams.

They stopped outside the entrance to the testing area after handing their details in. "Guys if you go in first we'll follow in a moment, it's not a good idea to let your enemies know who you'd go out of your way to try and save." Naruto looked at them smiling happily, "Good luck, if you guys don't make Chunnin then the world has gone insane!"

They smiled at him and went in front all of them smiling, though some were more forced than others.

Hinata turned to speak to Naruto, "I know they seem like nice people but you don't know what the Kazekage is planning."

Naruto looked at her slowly, his tone turning serious "I know that but in truth going into this exam they are the ones I trust the most. Yeah I trust you to do your best in these exams so you'll watch out for me and I trust you to be loyal to the Hokage and protect the village. Don't get me wrong I think you're a really great person but I've only known you a week and I trust them, especially Gaara with my life. I've known them for about 7 years now, we have an understanding." He looked her in the eye. "You don't have to trust them and I don't expect you to but I will."

She nodded, only slightly offend. What he had said was true, he couldn't trust them properly yet because he didn't know them. "As long as you trust them that much then I shall trust in your judgement as a ninja."

"Thanks," He then switched back to his usual tone, "Right shall we go in; I think we've waited enough."

Naruto went first, followed by Hinata and Shino and was faced with a room packed with genin some much older than them having obviously taken the test before. Naruto turned and whispered to his team. "I don't like the look of this, I'm going go outside, make a clone and send it in instead of me ok? I'll in the air vents; I figure it is better to send the one that can die in first, less chance of me facing the chop."

Hinata looked at Naruto and then around at the room and whispered back, "Why not send the clone into the air vents? You get their memories back don't you? That way if your clone saw anything it could cancel itself or you could cancel it if you wished and you'd get the information and be able to act on it. "

Naruto tilted his head to one side thoughtfully, "I think it would be better if I made two with that strategy just in case something happened after the first one cancelled." He looked Hinata up and down quickly, "You are good at this tracking lark you know."

"It's what we're trained for, now go and get those clones sorted before the test starts," she said with a smile.

It was when Naruto was gone that a silver haired 'genin' with glasses walked up to Hinata and Shino. "You guys look new to this, would you mind telling your friends over there," he gestured to Ino and Sakura who were arguing loudly over who got Sasuke. "To quiet it down a bit they're just making themselves enemies."

Hinata snorted, "They're not our friends, and they have already made enemies of their own age group. If you want them to shut up go and tell them yourself."

"Fine," Kabuto said while walking off. "People just don't usually take things like this well from strangers." Hinata watched his back with a look of hardened steel in her eyes.

"What?" She asked Shino, he was looking at her as if she'd just grown a second head.

"You were unusually sharp with him just then. I thought our tactic was not to make enemies?"

"It was, there was just something not right about him you know? Why would he come and talk to us? The ones who are standing away from the people shouting so obviously not friends with them. It just didn't sit right with me; I think he was just mining for information."

"You certainly gave him something to think about," Naruto said having appeared behind them his clones stationed in the air vents. "Making sure to tell him that we are not their friends, I wonder if he was going to use them as bait or something."

There was a smash and Naruto turned around to see a ninja from sound attacking the Konoha genin. Naruto slipped into fighting stance his hand sliding down his leg towards his kunai holster. If he had looked behind him then he would have seen Hinata's Byakugan activate and Shino practically vibrating from his bugs.

"THERE WILL BE NO FIGHTING IN THIS PORTION OF THE EXAM WITHOUT MY EXPRESS PERMISSION!" Naruto's head snapped up to see a strange man covered in scars and wearing a bandanna. This must be Ibiki, Naruto thought. Naruto hadn't ever seen him in person before but his Kaa-san had mentioned him, something to do with psychological torture and warfare.

It was at that point the Chunnin Exam proctors came in and lead them into another room. This was one with desks lined up in rows of 10, they were given a random number as they entered and were told to sit at the desk with that number on it. Naruto ended up with Gaara on one side and Shikamaru on the other. Hinata had pulled a worse number and had ended up between Sakura and a creepy ninja from grass. Shino didn't seem very happy either though, having to sit next to two people he had never seen before, not a friendly face in sight.

Ibiki stood at the front of the room and began speaking. "Welcome to the Chunnin Exams, this is not a test for the weak and for that reason you are allowed to withdraw at any time. A warning however, if you withdraw then your entire team will be withdrawn with you." A test proctor walked past Naruto and put a piece of paper face down on his desk. "The first test is a written test; if you are caught cheating then 2 points will be deducted from your team. Each team starts with 10 points, if you end up with 4 points having been caught three times your team will be removed from the entire exam. You will have an hour from when I say to begin, use this time wisely. BEGIN!"

Naruto flipped his paper over glancing down at the questions while mulling over what Ibiki had said. They obviously wanted people to cheat, in most exams if you were caught cheating then you were removed straight away. So weeding out the unintelligent who couldn't figure that out, he gave Ibiki and an appraising look. Good test, Ibiki-san he thought, good test.

He began the first question, one on working out the trajectory of a weapon. He was at this point glad of all the teaching Shizune had given him as a child. Though even to him it was obvious that these questions were well above the standard to be expected of a genin. He looked around him seeing the amazing techniques being used around him. Shikamaru had used his shadow possession jutsu to control Choji's hand to write the answers in for him, Gaara and his rather creepy but effective sand eye that was looking around at everyone else's answers and Kiba whose dog was sat atop of his head barking quietly obviously telling him the answers. He soon blocked out the sounds of the proctors failing different teams for being too obvious.

By the time Naruto had got to question 5 he was completely stumped, at this point he was very glad that he had already sent his clones into the air vents. He hoped they had had the sense to crawl through to this room from the other. He made the hand seal and cancelled out one of his clones, the memories came flooding back to him and all the answers his clone had seen written on somebody else's test paper. He quickly filled in the gaps that were missing in his answers and decided to wait out the last 15 minutes of the test in his own thoughts. This was of course after seeing one of Shino's bug land on his page and observed that he had all the answers and didn't need any help.

His mind drifted to his family, imagining what Tsunade and Jiraiya would do. Tsunade wasn't dull, not at all so she would have probably been able to complete the test without cheating. Jiraiya however would have had a problem at this age. He hadn't been the brightest or the most subtle, he had a strange idea that Jiraiya might have got up and started dancing or maybe he might have started a fight. Naruto thought back to what the test proctor had said 'no fighting unless they had permission'. Naruto bit a laugh as he imagined Jiraiya starting a huge brawl and then asking for permission later, he wondered if it would work. Not that he was going to chance it now that he had the answers but it was a good day dream in itself.

"Times up,"Ibiki said and Naruto looked around the room, no one from Konoha was missing and the sand team was still sitting pretty, no-one else mattered to Naruto. "Right now for the tenth question. This is the most important question in the entire exam; if you get this wrong then you will never be able to take the Chunnin Exams again. You can leave now with your team if you wish and return in 6 months completely able to retake but stay and fail the question, you'll be staying genin forever."

A shiver went through Naruto at this thought but then began to think about the question, it had to be important if you couldn't retake if you answered incorrectly. Must be something to do with being loyal to the Hokage or maybe to do with missions. Naruto then remembered that this was an expert in psychological warfare; the first part of the exam hadn't been at all psychological so this part must be. Maybe courage of convictions, every mission you went on could lead to your death you had to know you were good enough to go on them anyway. Naruto looked around in the time he had been thinking 10 teams had surrendered.

"Tell me Ibiki-san, why would anyone leave?" Said a voice from behind him. He looked around to see Hinata standing up. "We are ninja, we have been trained all our lives for this. If we are not good enough then why would we be next year? Questions like that breed hesitation and hesitation breeds death; I will never give up or back down from a challenge, for this is my ninja way. If we fail then we fail but to fail to try is a worse fate in my opinion."

Naruto blinked owlishly at her, she had just managed to echo his thoughts on the problem almost exactly. Only leaving the part about running away when the challenged you were faced with was impossible to beat but they didn't even know what this question was.

"Sit down, Hyuga-san," Ibiki said with a sigh. "Would anyone else like to leave now, before the question?" He did his best to sound menacing which in Naruto's opinion was very good. What he said made no difference however as no-one had moved a muscle after Hinata's little speech.

Clapping his hands together he began to speak again, smiling. "Well then, it is my upmost horror to inform you that you all pass. Don't take it easy however it only gets harder from here on up."

"Hold on, what was the tenth question?" Someone shouted, Temari possibly.

"Hyuga-san summed it up pretty nicely actually. Whether you left or stayed was the tenth question. Every mission you are sent on could lead to your death, you have to be ready as ninja to do the mission assigned to you, even if it might mean your death. Now it is again my upmost horror to introduce your second test proctor –"

"THE AMAZING, GORGEUS AND BRILLIANT ANKO MATARASHI!" A woman dived through the window with a small explosion. A banner appeared behind her in bright orange, Naruto couldn't help smiling this woman was bonkers. She was only wearing a trench coat and ninja mesh; she was also holding a kunai in her right hand but not for any reason Naruto could see. Thinking back hadn't Hinata mentioned an Anko-sensei Naruto thought. This must be her then; Naruto just hoped her test was a little saner than her entrance.

"Right, you've left a lot of them Ibiki," she said as he stepped out from behind her banner.

"You can blame that on your gaki," he said as if he was pained.

Anko barked a laugh before turning to address the assembled genin, "Right then you little bunnies, you all belong to me now. You have three days to prepare for the next test; anyone who comes unprepared will die." At this she waved her kunai at them. "You will meet outside training ground 44 at six in the morning; anyone who comes late will die. Oh, you might also like to know that it is more commonly known as the forest of death!"

She wiggled her fingers at them before saying "Bye bye bunnies," and performing a quick substitution leaving Ibiki to deal with the mess she had left.

Naruto smiled at the seemingly eccentric proctor and went over to speak to Hinata. "I know I shouldn't ask but I'm curious. Is that crazy women your sensei?"

The look on Hinata's face told him all he needed to know.

**Hope you enjoyed it; shout out to anyone who happened to be at the Cardiff Expo last month. Went up with a group of friends, hope anyone who was there had a good time. We certainly did! Cya later. **

**Saiyuxx**


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